Police turning up the heat at high-crime Athens motel

By Joe Johnson

The Athens-Clarke County Police Department is making things uncomfortable for criminals who have been using an Athens motel as a base of operations for their illegal activities,

Last week, in the early morning hours of May 19th, police obtained from management a roster of all guests who were renting rooms at the Bulldog Inn on Commerce Road.

The names were submitted to the Georgia Crime Information Center, a division of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that maintains a statewide index of criminal histories.

That resulted in a GCIC “hit” on a man from Cleveland who had a warrant for his arrest on file. He was taken into custody and held at the local jail for pickup by the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.

Checking on the motel’s guests came on the heels of ACCPD responding to a shooting incident in one of the rooms.

The shooting appeared to be accidental, but the victim was a known gang member and the room was being rented by a convicted felon who had a history of drug-related arrests.

Police obtained search warrants for that room and an adjacent room, resulting in the seizure of a large quantity of methamphetamine and a cache of weapons that included assault rifles.

A follow up investigation is being conducted by the Northeast Georgia Regional Drug Task Force.

On April 3rd, members of the task force were conducting surveillance of the Bulldog Inn when they spotted Octavius Sarden, a known drug dealer who was among a group of people who were going back and forth between rooms.

In a report concerning the operation, police said the task force was keeping an eye on the motel because of its reputation as “a high crime, drug, and prostitution area within the community.”

After Sarden left the motel police conducted a traffic stop on his car and they found a large amount of crystal meth, fentanyl , morphine, and packaging materials used for distribution.

Sarden was taken Into custody, and on May 13th he was indicted on drug trafficking charges.