A Marietta man who would not give up his seat at a Bojangles on Cobb Parkway ended up giving up a lot more, according to police. Officers say what started as a simple trespass call turned into a gun and drug bust when they found a stolen Glock that had been converted to fire automatically, along with a backpack full of marijuana packaged for sale. The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Joseph Watson, was arrested Monday and taken to the Cobb County Jail, where he is being held without bond. Investigators say the converted pistol was outfitted with an extended magazine and had a round sitting in the chamber.
Marietta police say officers showed up just after lunchtime after staff reported a man who had been sitting in the restaurant for hours and would not leave. When officers arrived, Watson tried to slip out a back door and instead walked straight into an officer, who noticed the outline of a handgun and asked if he was carrying any weapons. According to police, Watson reached into a front pouch, and officers pulled out a Glock that had been reported stolen out of Union City. Investigators say they then determined the handgun had been fitted with a conversion “switch” and was loaded with a 31-round magazine and one round in the chamber. Officers also found a backpack that, they say, held multiple bags of marijuana already packaged for distribution, and Watson was arrested and booked into the county jail without bond, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta.
Officer Chuck McPhilamy told FOX 5 Atlanta, “Thankfully, this business owner contacted the authorities,” adding that routine calls from local businesses can end up uncovering major drug and weapons cases. Police say this incident is a textbook example of how everyday public-safety contacts can reveal more serious criminal activity lurking in the background.
Why conversion devices worry police
Conversion parts such as so-called “Glock switches” and drop-in auto sears are treated under federal law as machine-gun conversion devices, and ATF reporting says recoveries of those parts have climbed sharply in recent years. The ATF’s NFCTA analysis explains that machine-gun conversion devices, often referred to as MCDs, are legally defined as machineguns under the National Firearms Act and that the agency has expanded training and tracking so local law enforcement can better identify privately made firearms and conversion parts. That increase in recoveries has turned otherwise common handguns into far more lethal weapons, prompting coordinated enforcement and training efforts among agencies.
Legal background and recent regional enforcement
Under federal law, the term “machinegun” includes any part that is “designed and intended” to convert a firearm into an automatic weapon (see 26 U.S.C. § 5845), which means that simply possessing an unregistered conversion device can bring federal felony charges. ATF officials and federal prosecutors have made it a priority to find and prosecute cases involving these conversion devices, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia previously brought a trafficking case that led to the recovery of multiple converted guns and auto-sear devices in Marietta, as detailed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Those federal efforts show how a local arrest can, in some situations, become part of a larger investigation when conversion devices or interstate trafficking are involved…