A 63-year-old Hawthorne woman had white powder under her nose when she was pulled over in Salt Springs and arrested on drug charges.
Marcella Charity Jordan was charged Thursday with possession of cocaine, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, and possession of drug equipment. She was pulled over at around 4:30 p.m. along the 23000 block of NE 127th Street after employees at the nearby Family Dollar store reported that a female had just bought alcohol and was seen doing drugs in a 2014 Silver Nissan Frontier.
A Marion County sheriff’s office detective located the vehicle traveling south on Highway 314 and saw it swerve into the grass several times and also swerve into the opposite lane, almost hitting an oncoming vehicle. The detective conducted a traffic stop and spoke with Jordan, according to the sheriff’s office report.
When asked if there were any drugs in the vehicle, Jordan removed from her purse a clear plastic bag with a white powdery substance that she said was cocaine. The detective said he could see white powder beneath Jordan’s nose. A sheriff’s lieutenant found a clear baggie containing residue of the same powdery substance in the center console and rolling papers and a straw in a cubby-hole beneath the radio, the report said.
The white substance field tested positive for cocaine. Also found in the cubby-hole were three white pills that were identified using an online pill identifier as hydrocodone, according to the report.
Jordan told a sheriff’s deputy that she was using cocaine in the store parking lot because of stress. She said she was swerving because the steering column of her truck was damaged. Jordan said she knew the pills were in the vehicle. She said a friend put the pills in the vehicle and she didn’t think to tell her friend to take them out, the report said.
Jordan was taken to the Marion County Jail, where she was released Friday on $5,000 bond. No information about a court date was available.