School bus driver charged with drug trafficking

Dewey Lynn Phillips, 50, is charged with possessing 12.5 kilograms, or about 27 pounds, of cocaine, 33 pounds of marijuana and assorted paraphernalia. The street value of the drugs is estimated at $714,000. Authorities also found $32,000 in cash.

The goods were found in a storage locker in Jefferson County by authorities executing a search warrant as part of a four-year, multi-agency investigation of various crimes and corruption in the county, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

Phillips made his first appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in Greeneville, where Magistrate Judge Dennis H. Inman ordered him held until a bond hearing Monday.

The federal complaint accuses him of selling “multi-kilogram quantities” of cocaine on a weekly basis.

FBI Agent Kevin S. Keithley wrote in the complaint that Phillips first came under suspicion when a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper stopped him in Cocke County on March 18.

“Phillips was found to be in possession of $80,000 in cash,” Keithley wrote. “Phillips’ only known lawful employment was as a school bus driver for the Cocke County School System.”

It’s not clear from the complaint whether the trooper ticketed or charged Phillips or confiscated the cash.

A month later, investigators said an informant told them he had been buying bricks of cocaine from Phillips at a storage locker in Newport. Earlier this month another informant told authorities the same, and bought a kilogram from Phillips under FBI and TBI surveillance, according to the complaint.

Phillips told the informant that he had another nine kilograms available to sell, the complaint said.