Benzino Arrested During Traffic Stop for Speeding and Drug Charges

Benzino is facing multiple charges in Georgia after a traffic stop escalated earlier this month.

Officers with the Arabi Police Department noticed a silver SUV traveling 91 mph in a 70-mph zone, according to local news outlet WALB News 10. Behind the wheel was Benzino.

Once officers approached the vehicle, they reported detecting a marijuana odor, which Benzino confirmed, pointing to a bag of weed in the driver’s side door. A second bag of suspected marijuana turned up under a blanket in the back seat, next to his passenger Ruth Lewis.

Lewis told authorities that marijuana was hers. Benzino, meanwhile, told officers he was driving because the vehicle owner, Ashley Bell, had taken medication and needed to sleep.

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When asked about his license, Benzino said it was not valid due to child support issues. A records check uncovered that his license was actually suspended for multiple other offenses.

Both Benzino and Lewis were transported to Crisp County Jail and booked on charges that include speeding and drug possession. Benzino was additionally charged with driving without a valid license and Bell was charged with allowing an unlicensed driver to operate her vehicle.

This isn’t Benzino’s first run-in with Georgia law enforcement in recent years. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony drug charges stemming from a 2017 raid of his metro Atlanta apartment, where officers found THC oil gummies, pills that field-tested as MDMA, and a small amount of marijuana. He was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine, avoiding jail time.

In 2020, he was arrested in Gwinnett County on a criminal damage to property charge after allegedly damaging another man’s truck during an incident in Braselton.