Deputies Find Heroin, Lortabs During Traffic Stop in Oconee

Deputies say they found suspected heroin and Lortabs during a traffic stop Saturday in Oconee County and arrested two local men on drug-related charges.

It happened around 4 p.m., according to an incident report at the .  While patrolling the area of Hog Mountain Road, a deputy says he observed a green Honda Accord with a missing turn signal. He turned around onto Union Church Road to try to catch up with the car and stopped the driver on Whipporwill Road near Elder Road.

When questioned, the driver said he and the passenger had been at the mall but, according to the deputy's report, the passenger said he had been at a shop where he worked and his friend had come to pick him up to take him home.   The driver was given a warning for the turn light infraction.  However, because of the differences in the two men's stories, the deputy says he asked to search the car. The driver consented and advised the deputy he might find needles in the center console, according to the incident report.

Another deputy arrived to assist with the search. Needles were first found in the passenger's black jacket inside a front compartment, the deputy wrote, but the man said the needles didn't belong to him. The deputy next says he found a metal spoon, burnt on the bottom, several needles and a small amount of marijuana inside a case for sunglasses in the center console.

The deputies also searched the men and say they found three plastic cylindrical containers with an off-white powdered substance and two pink oblong-shaped pills inside the pant leg of one of the multiple layers of pants the passenger was wearing. The passenger identified the drugs as heroin and Lortabs, the report noted.

"Neither of the individuals would take sole responsibility for the contraband; they both admitted it was theirs but not only theirs," the responding deputy wrote in the report.

Joshua Blaze Burgess, 20, of Watkinsville and Landon Timothy Riddle, 20, of Bishop were each charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of possession of drug-related objects in connection with the incident.