SEBASTIAN — Three people were arrested in Sebastian over last weekend for trafficking in Oxycodone. Two of them, who were arrested in separate busts, share an apparent connection with a fatal shooting that occurred last November in the Pelican Island Apartments.
One who was arrested, Marciano Dort, was in the get-away vehicle involved in the shooting. While he was not charged in connection to the shooting death of 45-year-old John Torres, he was arrested for Oxycodone trafficking at the time and later bonded out of the county jail. The other who was arrested, Daniel Torres (a.k.a. Daniel Duffy), is a son-in-law of the slain John Torres, according to online reports.
Neither man, however, has been arrested or charged for the death of John Torres. They both, along with Margaret Young, face charges of trafficking in Oxycodone.
Torres, 33, was arrested on Saturday, May 15, after a confidential informant (CI) told the Sebastian Police Department that Torres contacted the CI, saying he was working for the police department to help arrest Mario (Marciano) Dort, his arrest report states.
There is nothing in the arrest report that supports Torres’ claim that he was assisting the police department or how he would have “helped” by purchasing the pills from the CI.
Torres also told the CI that he would need Oxycodone pills after the police arrest Dort and asked the CI to contact his/her friends to get the pills.
Working with the Sebastian Police Department, the CI arranged to sell 200 Oxycodone pills to Torres for $1,200. Instead of the prearranged 200 pills, the CI sold 150 to Torres. Police performed a traffic stop after Torres took possession of the pills.
During the stop, Torres was seen throwing a paper towel out the vehicle’s window. Detectives later recovered 147 Oxycodone pills, many of which were scattered in the swale alongside the road.
Torres faces charges of Oxycodone trafficking and tampering with evidence. Bail on those two charges amounts to $525,000. However, he is being held without bail on a fugitive from justice charge out of Georgia.
Dort and Young were both arrested on two counts each of Oxycodone trafficking after a confidential informant, working with the Sebastian Police Department, on two occasions purchased a total of 190 pills for $1,800.
During the first drug-buy, on May 6, the CI arranged to buy 90 pills for $700 from Dort inside a vehicle driven by Young.
The transaction only took about five minutes, according to what the CI told the Sebastian Police Department, though the CI was in Young’s vehicle for nearly 30 minutes. The CI told police that they spent the remaining 25 minutes talking about John Torres’ murder.
No other details about Torres’ death was included in the report.
On May 14, the CI arranged for another Oxycodone purchase from Dort and Young, according to the police department. At that time, he bought 100 pills for $1,100, police said. A detective followed Young’s vehicle after the transaction and pulled the vehicle over.
The detective found the pre-recorded $1,100 cash in Dort’s pocket and placed him under arrest. Dort is being held at the county jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Authorities questioned Young’s involvement in the drug-buys, who told them that she had gotten the Oxycodone prescriptions from two doctors in Melbourne Beach and in Orlando in order to fill the CI’s request.
Young told a police sergeant that “she was fully aware of why she and Dort were meeting with the CI,” the arrest report states.
Young is being held at the county jail in lieu of $300,000 bail.
