THP to hold roadside sobriety checkpoint

The Tennessee Highway Patrol will soon be holding roadside sobriety checkpoints for the week of Aug. 27.

Checkpoints will be set up along Tennessee State Route 160 and US Route 25E, specifically in Cocke County.

Impaired driving kills upward of 16,000 people and injures 305,000 each year. During these checkpoints, state troopers will be evaluating drivers for signs of alcohol or drug consumption and the effects that follow.

Troopers will target drivers who are suspected of operating a vehicle while impaired and take corrective actions for other violations while keeping the safety of all motorists in mind.

The THP recognizes that these checkpoints for sobriety are highly visible and effective tools in the fight against impaired driving and its consequences.

Erwin man sentenced to 262 months in prison for meth trafficking

On August 14, Joshua Dwayne Mabery, 47, of Erwin, was sentenced to 262 months in federal prison, by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.

Following a three-day trial, ending on March 30, Mabery was convicted of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Upon his release from prison, Mabery will be on supervised release for 10 years.

The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Mabery, who had recently been released from prison related to a federal conviction in 2012 for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, began distributing methamphetamine in the fall of 2020 in northeast Tennessee.

In February 2021, he and a co-conspirator were arrested in Washington County as they returned from Knoxville with over a half-kilogram of crystal methamphetamine they had just purchased from another co-conspirator.

U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee made the announcement.

The criminal indictment was the result of a joint investigation by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson City Police Department, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General.