INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Yeehaw Junction man was arrested, accused of manufacturing crystal meth after deputies concluded a month-long investigation.
Authorities arrested Paul Allen Davis, 46, of 3479 Central Blvd., Yeehaw Junction, shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday during a traffic stop on State Road 60 at 98th Avenue.
Davis is being held at the county jail without bond, facing charges of trafficking/conspiracy to engage in trafficking and felony manufacture of deliver drug paraphernalia.
According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, this is what happened:
Over the course of the last month, Multi-Agency Criminal Enforcement Unit Detective Bill Staar received information from local pharmacists and other sources and discovered a suspected Methamphetamine ring.
On Thursday,the detective found out that Davis was traveling to numerous pharmacies in the area, buying the maximum amount of over-the-counter antihistamines, which are used to create crystal meth.
MACE detectives, with help from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit, Uniform Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration, surveillance was conducted on two more stops Davis made to purchase items related to creating meth.
Following the purchases, Det. Staar stopped Davis on SR 60, west of Interstate 95 and arrested him on the drug charges.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Davis has an extensive criminal history, including an arrest once before in what officials call a “rolling meth lab.”
Concerned for the public’s safety, authorities decided to wait for Davis to travel away from the populated area and stop him after he crossed I-95.
If convicted, Davis could receive a life sentence in prison, according to Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther.
Methamphetamine, which is also known as crystal meth, is a manufactured narcotic utilizing items such as antihistamine, Drano, red phosphorus (used with matches), muratic acid, hydrogen peroxide, among other common household ingredients.
The drug first appeared in the 1960s with the street name of “crank.” Though rarely found in Indian River County, crystal meth has recently swept across the country resulting in the tracking of certain over the counter medications, according to Luther.
