FELLSMERE — A man riding an improperly lit bicycle at night near Willow and Booker Street in Fellsmere was arrested Thursday after a Sheriff’s deputy found 1 1/3 pounds of marijuana and nearly a quarter-pound of cocaine on the man.
Deputy Heath Higman found under the suspect’s sweater a large brick of marijuana, along with several smaller bags of the drug, as well as cocaine, crack cocaine, oxycodone and suboxone – an opiate, according to the report.
In all, the deputy seized 604 grams of marijuana, 112 grams of powder cocaine, 8 grams of crack cocaine, 50 oxycodone pills and 8 suboxone tablets.
Lieutenant Kent Campbell, Deputy Higman’s supervisor, said in a prepared statement released by the Sheriff’s Office, that the haul was an unusually large amount of drugs to be recovered from someone riding a bicycle.
Lt. Campbell also said that Deputy Higman’s arrest of Benard Lewis, 50, of Booker Street, is indicative of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office’s goal of getting drugs and those who sell drugs off the streets.
Deputy Higman initially stopped Lewis for not having proper lights on his bicycle, according to the arrest report. And when the deputy a marijuana odor coming from Lewis, he searched the man, making the find.
Lewis told Deputy Higman that he found the bag of drugs on the side of the road and planned to take them home for personal use, the report states. He told the deputy that he is a junky, which is why he didn’t report the find to authorities.
Lewis faces numerous felony charges, which include marijuana possession with intent to distribute, oxycodone trafficking, cocaine trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana.
He is being held at the county jail in lieu of $185,000 bond.
