Police serve search warrant at county apartment, arrest 2 on drug charges

Published 5:18 pm Wednesday, May 17, 2017

A Carter County man and woman face drug charges after police executed a search warrant on their home in the Cedar Grove community.

Deputies of the Carter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Thomas Ledford, 53, and Lori Buchanan, 55, both of 106 Osborne Road, Apt. 33, Johnson City, on Tuesday evening and charged each of them with the sale of methamphetamine, possession of Schedule III drugs, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to police reports, around 5:40 p.m. on Tuesday, deputies and investigators from the Carter County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at the apartment shared by Ledford and Buchanan.

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“During the search, evidence was found to support methamphetamine was being sold from the residence,” CCSO Investigator Chris Reichenbach said in the affidavit of complaint filed in the case. “In a tin located under the bed Ledford and Buchanan both sleep in was various pills without a prescription bottle, four small baggies containing a white crystalline substance, a scale with a white crystalline residue, and other drug paraphernalia.”

Reichenbach said a field test was performed on the white crystalline substance and it tested positive for methamphetamine.

After investigators had completed the search of the apartment, the officers arrested Ledford and Buchanan and transported them to the Carter County Detention Center.

Both Ledford and Buchanan each posted a $10,000 bond and were released from the jail on Tuesday. They are scheduled to make their first appearance in Carter County General Sessions Court on June 15.