Michael Wade Hensley
Chattanooga Police said they found Michael Wade Hensley with a large cache of meth, a loaded handgun and $23,134 cash after being summoned to a motel near Hamilton Place Mall last Wednesday.
Police said they believe that Hensley, 41, was the supplier for a 36-year-old Rossville man who died of an overdose on June 29.
Hensley is now facing federal charges of possession of meth for resale.
Management at the Hampton Inn said Hensley had rented two rooms and they were having trouble getting him to leave. They said he had had to move from one room to another, and they found syringes and drug paraphernalia in the room he vacated. Hotel officials also did a search on the Internet and found that Hensley had prior arrests for large amounts of drugs and possession of weapons.
Police said they were familiar with Hensley, saying he had been involved in cases involving large quantities of meth.
Officers stood by as Hensley was again asked by hotel management to leave. After he finally walked out, he was stopped by detectives.
A search turned up a loaded 9 mm pistol and a bag of meth. Hensley would not allow a search of one of the rooms. After getting a search warrant, officers found 876 grams of meth in the room along with the cash as well as 8.6 grams of marijuana and a large variety of prescription pills. They also found additional loaded weapon magazines.