A Gwinnett County man has been charged with selling about two dozen ecstasy pills to an undercover Cobb County officer and nearly running over a cop while trying to flee his arrest.
Jose Luis Villanueva, 23, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault on an officer and one count each of obstruction, failure to report accident, duty upon striking a fixed object, using communication facilities to commit a crime, interference with government property, fleeing or attempting to elude, sale of ecstasy and hit and run, Cobb jail records show.
The Loganville resident allegedly used SnapChat to arrange and complete a drug deal with a undercover officer with the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Task Force Narcotics Unit agent, an arrest warrant obtained June 24 by Cobb police states. Villanueva used the app to sell 25 ecstasy pills to an undercover officer for $520, the warrant adds.
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Officers moved in to arrest Villanueva around 9 p.m. June 24 in the 5000 block of North Lincoln Trace Avenue in Smyrna. However, the officer’s narrative in the warrant said Villanueva tried to escape in a 2016 Ford Focus, nearly running over an agent in the process. That officer had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the car, the warrant states.
Villanueva continued to drive away, ramming his Ford Focus into a Cobb County-owned Chevrolet Silverado occupied by two agents. Villanueva fled the scene in the vehicle, but was later captured by police. He remains held at the Cobb County Jail without bond.
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The Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Crime Unit was created in 1980 when the war on drugs surged across the country. The unit recently made headlines with Marietta police chief Dan Flynn announced the department's withdrawal from the unit.
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