By Joe Johnson
An Athens-Clarke County man who is wanted in Atlanta and Tennessee was arrested Wednesday on a local drug trafficking charge.
John Bernard Graf, 35, of Haley Drive in Bogart was taken into custody on warrants that hadn’t been served for over a year.
According to Athens-Clarke County police, warrants charging Graf with trafficking heroin and possession with intent to distribute were issued in October 2020, after police responded to a reported fight at Budget Host Inn on Atlanta Highway.
Police said that as officers were interviewing people outside the motel’s office where the fight occurred they saw Graf walking away, not wearing a shirt and carrying a backpack.
Graf was detained after he was found between vehicles in the parking lot but did not have the backpack, according to police.
When officers patted down the man, police said, they located a glass pipe that is commonly used to smoke methamphetamine, police said, and a further search of Graf’s van turned up the backpack that contained 10 grams of heroin, 20 grams of methamphetamine, digital scales, drug packaging, a container of marijuana, cut straws, and nearly $4,000 in cash.
During a search of the motel room where Graf was staying, officers found possible ledgers, TCH vape pens, multiple cell phones and additional packaging supplies, according to police.
Police said that Graf consented to speak with the Northeast Georgia Regional Drug Force, and as he was waiting to be interviewed at the west police precinct he “made a spontaneous utterance indicating he recently purchased meth and heroin, and it was selling slow.”
An officer wrote in an incident report that he would seek warrants at a later time and the drugs would be sent for testing and the at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab.
After Graf was taken into custody Wednesday on the warrants, holds were placed on his release by the Atlanta Police Department because they wanted him for a residential burglary, and by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in Tennesse, where he was wanted for passing counterfeit checks.