By Pat Culverhouse

A traffic stop in the early morning hours Tuesday has put a Minden man behind bars looking at drug and firearm-related charges.

Chief of Police Jared McIver said 55-year-old Michael Wayne Taylor, a resident of the 600 block of Peach St., was stopped for a traffic violation on Shreveport Rd. at West St. just before 2:30 a.m. by Sgt. Ben Sparks.

During the stop, Taylor reportedly advised Sgt. Sparks he did not have a drivers license, and was asked to produce other paperwork. As he opened the center console of the vehicle, assisting Officer Cadyn O’Connor reportedly observed a silver handgun.

As officers performed a preliminary search on the suspect at the scene, they reportedly found a bag of suspected crack cocaine in his pants pocket.  During a later search at police headquarters, officers reportedly found synthetic marijuana in one sock and natural marijuana in the other.

According to police reports, Taylor entered a guilty plea and was sentenced in 2024 for distribution of a CDS Sch. II. He reportedly was sentenced to five years supervised probation with three years credit for time served.

Taylor is currently being held at Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center charged with possession of CDS Sch. II (crack cocaine), possession of CDS Sch. I (synthetic marijuana), possession of a firearm by convicted felon, possession of firearm in presence of CDS, possession of drug paraphernalia and three traffic citations. Bond is set at $61,000.

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.