A routine check of a Music Valley Drive hotel parking area before sunrise Thursday led to the discovery of a Jeep containing powder and pills constituting a menu of illegal drugs, including meth, cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and marijuana. Also recovered were three pistols, multiple cell phones and $11,731 cash in small bills.
The man in the Jeep, Cody Benjamin Smith, 31, of Old Hickory, is charged with 20 criminal offenses and is jailed in lieu of $501,000 bond.
Hermitage Precinct midnight shift officer Joshua McGarvey was checking the parking garage of the Ramada Inn on Music Valley Drive when he saw a man (Smith) sitting in a Jeep that was running with the headlights on. Officer McGarvey got out, approached the Jeep, and saw that Smith’s eyes were bloodshot with constricted pupils and that he was sweating profusely. When the officer attempted to take Smith into custody, he took off running, but was apprehended after a brief foot chase. Smith was found to be carrying a semi-automatic pistol in his pants pocket that had been reported stolen. Inside the Jeep were two additional loaded pistols, a large industrial scale, 1.6 pounds of marijuana, 186 grams of meth, 93 grams of cocaine, 86 grams of a gray powder believed to be fentanyl, 216 grams of apparent heroin, 306 Alprazolam (sedative) pills, 115 oxycodone/acetaminophen pills, 244 additional oxycodone pills and 16 oxymorphone pills.
Narcotics detective from the Specialized Investigations Division’s Neighborhood Safety Unit are assisting in this continuing investigation.
While being transported from the scene, Smith fell asleep several times and appeared lethargic. He was checked out at a local hospital and then booked into jail.
