An Ocala woman who picked up a drunk friend was arrested on drug charges for the paraphernalia and narcotics in her passenger seat and pants.
An officer observed the driver of a silver Jeep, later identified as 42-year-old Crystal Lynn Moore, traveling eastbound on U.S. Highway 441 approaching County Road 473 around 1:36 a.m. Tuesday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. The vehicle did not have two working tag lights that could illuminate the license plate to be visible from 50 feet, as the bulbs were completely out or fully dimmed from age.
Due to this observation, the officer initiated a traffic stop. The vehicle complied and pulled over into a turn lane just east of 11029 U.S. Hwy. 441, the report said,
The officer approached the driver’s side of the vehicle to see Moore and a female backseat passenger who was lying down in the seat with her legs on the driver’s side and upper torso on the passenger’s side. The passenger stated she was lying down because she was intoxicated, the report said.
The officer explained the reason for the traffic stop and asked Moore for her license, prompting the passenger to provide her own license. Moore, on the other hand, informed the officer she could not hand over her license because she did not have a valid one. She was only driving because the passenger needed to be picked up from the bar. She eventually found her ID and was identified, the report said.
Moore advised that she knew her license was suspended and repeated her friend needed to be picked up. The officer next asked the two if they had any weapons or contraband on them or in the vehicle. Moore said she did not believe so but there was a yellow plastic device next to her that she picked up from someone at the bar in Ocala, the report said.
Both occupants consented to a search of their persons and agreed to get out of the vehicle. Once they complied, dispatch confirmed Moore had an extensive list of suspensions on her license dating back from Nov. 2014 to March 2023, the report said.
The officer immediately turned Moore’s ID over to another officer and began writing a written warning while his K-9 partner sniffed around the vehicle’s exterior. The K-9 positively alerted to the front and passenger driver’s sides of the vehicle, the report said.
During a search of the vehicle, the officer investigated the yellow device in the passenger seat that Moore claimed she just picked up. Inside the screw-on lip container, he observed a white powdery substance mixed with a white crystalline substance. Another officer was called to the scene for test kits, as the substance was suspected to be fentanyl, the report said.
The device the substance was inside turned out to be a modified smoking vehicle with two long straws attached. At the end of one straw were burn marks while the other was clean, appearing the user would smoke from the non-burned side. This was a clear form of paraphernalia, the report said.
Just behind the passenger row of seats inside the back storage compartment, an officer discovered a glass smoking pipe with burn marks and residue from narcotic usage. The passenger later admitted during an interview that she hid it prior to the stop and was charged accordingly, the report said.
The officer with the test kits arrived on scene and used them on the unknown substance in the makeshift smoking device. It had an approximate weight of 5.8 grams and tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine, the report said.
The two suspects were separated, and an officer spoke with Moore. She confirmed that she knew her license was suspended but stated she just wanted to help her friend get home. She reiterated the smoking device was picked up from someone at the bar in Ocala. When told the substance came back as fentanyl, she advised she thought it was only methamphetamine, the report said.
Moore was subsequently detained, searched and asked several times if she had anything on her person. She said no several times, but upon getting to a patrol vehicle, she admitted to having a substance shoved near her vaginal area. EMS was dispatched to the scene to assist in removing safely, the report said.
After the removal of the substance, Moore admitted she tried hiding it on her person as the traffic stop was being conducted. It turned out to be a white powdery substance packaged in a small clear plastic baggie tied at the top. It weighed 3.3 grams and tested positive for fentanyl, the report said.
Moore was arrested on charges of trafficking in fentanyl (more than 4 grams less than 14 grams), possession of controlled substance, drug paraphernalia (possess or use), tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and driving while license suspended or revoked (with knowledge). She was transported to Lake County Jail and released after posting $112,000 bond.
