Crime & Safety

Couple Jailed Despite Alleged Hidden Compartments

A traffic stop for inoperable tag lights in Cartersville led to the discovery of a large amount of suspected methamphetamine.

A woman previously featured in and a Taylorsville man were jailed late Tuesday following a traffic stop for inoperable tag lights.

The driver, Phillip Damon Barge, 34, said he also failed to maintain his lane on Douthit Ferry Road in Cartersville because the wheels on his 1998 Ford F-150 are bent, according to the incident report. His conversation with a deputy led to a search of the vehicle.

Both Barge, a probationer, and his passenger, Lauren Ashlea Craven, 32, of Cartersville, denied having drugs in the truck, but police say the midnight search produced two large plastic bags of suspected methamphetamine.

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Craven, in an unrelated June incident, faced charges in connection with the alleged from a shopper.

In the most recent incident, she and Barge were each charged with trafficking meth after the deputy spotted an old and dirty, but full Pepsi bottle in the truck. It had a hidden compartment behind the label, but the alleged drugs were found elsewhere.

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In addition to small, plastic bags commonly used in the drug trade, police found hidden in the air bag compartment the suspected methamphetamine, a glass pipe and a "large amount" of money. The compartment appeared to be have been tampered with, a deputy reported.

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