MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A 27-year-old Milledgeville man who ran away from local and state authorities last week after they discovered him in the possession of nearly two ounces of cocaine was still being sought Monday.

The cocaine had an estimated street value of nearly $3,000, authorities said.

The drug case unfolded during an ongoing probe by a pair of detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office looking into a recent drive-by shooting involving a house damaged by gunshots along Vinson Highway.

“Myself and Detective Haley Beckham were following up on leads to the shooting case when we came across Dixon and this drug case,” said Detective Thomas “T.J.” Hargrove.

He identified the drug suspect as Quentin Montel Dixon, of a Fifth Street address.

Hargrove explained that he and Beckham went to Dixon’s residence because they had received information that the shooter in the aggravated assault case they were working might live there.

When Dixon answered the door, he denied being kin to the man the person detectives wanted to talk with about the shooting.

While talking with Dixon, Beckham said in a report that she and Hargrove questioned Dixon about a Honda Accord they saw parked in the driveway with bullet holes in it. Dixon reportedly told them he had recently purchased the car in Atlanta and that it already had the bullet holes in it when he bought it.

Beckham said she and Hargrove also smelled marijuana as they talked with Dixon at his residence on Fifth Street on April 25.

Dixon reportedly told the detectives that he had earlier smoked a marijuana cigarette.

Hargrove said he and Beckham later learned from state probation officers that Dixon had not notified them of his new address. He was believed to still be living in the Atlanta area at the time and on probation for previous criminal convictions.

“We made the decision to return to the residence the following day to attempt to locate (another man),” Hargrove said in an incident report.

The detective said probation officers also went with them to check on why Dixon had not reported to them that he was now living at a new address in Milledgeville.

State Probation Officer David Nobles telephoned Beckham the next day and inquired about Dixon.

Later that same day, Beckham said she and Hargrove went back to Dixon’s residence along with state probation officers.

It wasn’t long after the detectives and state probation officers arrived that Dixon decided to run. Attempts to find him were unsuccessful.

After the cocaine was discovered, Agent Cameron Ptak of the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force was called to the scene.

Dixon, described as a black male, standing 5-feet-7, weighing 220 lbs. with black hair and brown eyes, is wanted on drug and other criminal charges, Hargrove told The Union-Recorder.

The suspect, who was on state probation, is facing charges of Violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act for trafficking in cocaine, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, Hargrove said.

Anyone with information as to Dixon’s whereabouts or information on the drive-by shooting is asked to call the sheriff’s office tip line at 478-445-5102.