Sheriff’s Deputies make major pill bust at Exit 15

Photo below: Whitley County Deputy Sheriff Ron Bowling counts pills seized in the bust at the Shell station on I-75 Exit 15 Sunday night.

Whitley County Deputy Sheriff’s confiscated over 900 prescription pills from a motorist at a gas station on I-75 Exit 15 Sunday, the latest in local law enforcement efforts to slow the flow of illegal painkillers traveling along what has been dubbed the "pill pipeline."

Knoxville, Tenn. resident Brian Edward Hill, 39, is facing numerous drug related charges, including first-degree possession of a controlled substance, and for having prescription controlled substance in improper containers. He also is charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed a deadly weapon.

Authorities were notified of a reckless driver at about the 21-mile marker traveling south on I-75 late Sunday. Soon after, a worker from the Shell station at Exit 15 in Gold bug notified police there was a man slumped over the steering wheel of a vehicle that matched the description of the reckless driver. The man turned out to be Hill. He was parked right in front of the entrance to the gas station.

"They were a little scared by him," said Whitley County Deputy Sheriff Lt. Dave Lennon.

Deputy Sheriff Ron Bowling was the first to arrive on the scene. When he got there, Hill was inside attempting to "pay" for an energy drink.

"It looked like there was some kind of disturbance in the store. I was able to slip in unannounced and get in behind him. He was at the counter and he kept making some kind of hand motion to a bulge on his right hip," Bowling said. "I put my knee in his side and got him handcuffed for everyone’s safety and took him out of the store."

Police say the bulge was a seven-inch lock blade knife, which was in the open position, tucked into his shorts. Bowling said he worried Hill may have resorted to violence if the situation had continued.

"This man didn’t have a single cent to his name … not credit cards or anything," Bowling said. "I asked him how he was going to pay for his drink. He didn’t seem to know."

Police searched Hill and found a pill bottle with 162 Xanax pills. After gaining verbal consent to search his car, they found numerous other pill bottles filled with a total of 675 full Xanax pills and 247 Xanax pills broken in half – a total of 922 pills.

The drugs have an estimated street value of $4,116, Bowling said.

"That’s the biggest pill bust I’ve ever been involved in," said Lennon. "We absolutely ruined somebody’s Christmas."

Police believe Hill may have just purchased the drugs from someone else he met earlier at the Shell station. They believe he intended to take them back to Knoxville for distribution.

"I think he was just a drug mule," Bowling said. "He’s just moving those for somebody, getting them from point A to point B."

Lennon said Hill could barely answer police questions because he was so intoxicated. It is likely, they say, he was using the same pills they discovered in his possession.

Lennon added that he planned to contact the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department regarding the case because some evidence lead police to believe the pills may have come from the Science Hill area.

Hill’s Ford Taurus was impounded and he was lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center and remains there in lieu of $20,000 cash bond. He was arraigned in Whitley District Court in Williamsburg Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. A preliminary hearing in his case is set for July 19.

Bowling said it was likely Hill wouldn’t have gotten very far even if he made it back to his car at the Shell station. Another customer at the Shell station noticed he was impaired and took the keys out of Hill’s vehicle and threw them on the ground so he could not drive away.

"It was just a good Samaritan that didn’t want an impaired driver on the road where they could hurt anybody," Bowling said.