A Mt. Juliet man has been swept up in the arms of the law after a detailed narcotics investigation led by the MNPD Specialized Investigations Division, with the TBI HIDTA, Mt. Juliet Police, and Wilson County Sheriff’s Department lending their hands in a show of inter-agency collaboration. The man identified as Michael Bell, 52, was charged this morning with two counts of felony cocaine possession, a consequence of his alleged ventures into the drug-trafficking world during upscale parties in Nashville, according to a report by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Found in his car on Tuesday, Bell was carrying mushrooms and cocaine, Wilson County deputies reported, who conducted the traffic stop. After being granted a search warrant, his home in Mt. Juliet became the stage for a revealing search that unearthed more unlawful substances, including cocaine, MDMA, growing mushroom plants, methamphetamines, THC-infused bars, and digital scales, as per the MNPD's findings.
A subsequent snoop around Bell's Nashville storage unit brought another piece to the puzzle—half a kilogram of cocaine mixed with fentanyl—painting a clearer picture of the scale of Bell's alleged operation. The storage unit, typically a place for excess furniture and family photos, in this case, held enough narcotics to render the drug scene in this city on edge.
As of now, Bell's freedom can be bought for a price—his bond set at $95,000. But price tags in the story of crime often hang on the eventual cost yet to be tallied as detectives signal the likelihood of additional charges looming in what they suggest is a still-unraveling investigation. His hidden harvest now laid bare for the courts to judge, Bell will have to account for each gram as the justice system wields its gavel, in light of the evidence stacked against him.
