MADISON COUNTY, Ala. – Story Updated January 15, 2020.
An investigation is underway to find out exactly what was left in a car seized in a narcotics raid in Tennessee that was later sold at auction. What was first believed to be two kilos of heroin left in the trunk, turns out to be something else. Investigators say it never tested positive for narcotics.
The Millersville Tennessee Police Department tells our sister station WKRN in Nashville, the car was seized in 2019 after more than 5 pounds of cocaine was discovered inside.
Police impounded the car and took inventory of everything inside, but didn’t find any more narcotics. The courts later awarding the seized property to the police department who listed it on the state website – govdeals.com
Madison County’s Rick Joyner drives the story from there.
“It was full of junk and all kinds of stuff and they were like whatever is in there is yours,” says Joyner.
The Joyner family paid $500 for the car, picked it up in Tennessee and when they got home to Alabama that they found what looked like drugs.
“It was in plain sight just sitting here in a bag right in the trunk it wasn’t hidden wasn’t in a compartment it was just basically laying right here,” explained Joyner.
It was in a plastic bag and tightly taped, so Rick Joyner contacted the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
The Millersville City Manager first issued a statement saying they must have overlooked the narcotics, but later issued a statement saying investigators in Madison County no longer believe the substance to be narcotics after testing it.
Madison County Sheriff Kevin Turner confirms the unknown substance never tested positive for a narcotic, but the package did appear suspicious.
Turner tells us they have no idea what it is but it’s now being sent back to Millersville police department.
Sheriff Turner tells News 19 the Millersville Police Department will pick it up next week and turn it over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for further analysis.
Previous Story
One Madison County family was in for an unwanted surprise when they opened the trunk of their newly purchased car. The deal they got at a government auction in Tennessee was full of heroin.
Rick Joyner tries to get all of his foster children their first car when they start driving. It was his foster son Tyrese Allen’s turn.
“I told him I could probably get him one for pretty reasonable and I did,” Joyner said. He found a working Ford Taurus for $500 on a government auction site, “The ones I look at are all drug seizures.”
Joyner and his son headed up to Nashville to pick up the car. Joyner made sure to speak with the officers, “It was full of junk and all kinds of stuff and they were like, ‘Whatever is in there, it’s yours.’ Cause I asked them if they ran a dog through it but they were like, ‘Nah, we got it all don’t worry about it.'”
They towed the car back to Alabama and popped the trunk. “We started pulling all this stuff out of the trunk and I saw this Walmart bag and I pulled it up and it had two bundles of something that was taped really, really heavy. I was looking at it and I thought, ‘Something don’t look right with this.'”
After making the discovery, Joyner called the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office has the evidence and says that the bag contained about 2 kilos of heroin worth approximately $300,000.
Tyrese says this is a funny story he will always have to tell about his first car. “I’ll probably remember this for the rest of my life just because it was so unexpected it was just like a regular day and then out of nowhere, we find two kilos of heroin in our trunk.”
