An investigation that began with complaints about vaping in schools ended with the arrest of what Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said Feb. 6 was a “major drug trafficker.”
In total, Budensiek said investigators turned up 78.5 pounds of marijuana; 2,544 THC vapes/cartridges; 81 THC wax/dab containers; 290 THC gummies; seven guns and more than $56,000 during search warrants executed late Feb. 3 and early Feb. 4 at residences in Indiantown.
“I understand that public sentiment is softening with marijuana, but these black market marijuana dealers like this guy, they absolutely affect our kids,” Budensiek said.
The search warrants were at residences in the 14500 block of Southwest Esperanza Court and 14800 block of Southwest 175th Court. The locations are about 0.5 mile apart, west of Southwest Warfield Boulevard.
Investigators reported linking the residences to Bryan Gomez-Colin, 21, records show.
The search warrants came after reported undercover drug buys in September, December and January from Gomez-Colin, records show.
In two of the buys, records show, an informant purchased about an ounce of cocaine as well as marijuana, while in the first the informant bought just marijuana, affidavits state.
“He really was not on our radar until we got that complaint about the vapes in the schools,” Budensiek said. “Then our narcotics guys, they just followed the investigation like they normally do, but this one ended up with a lot larger of a seizure.”
Budensiek said investigators believe his “underlings” got the items into schools.
“He’s selling to anybody and everybody, but that’s the route that we started on to get where we ended up,” Budensiek said.
Budensiek said some children have adverse side effects from marijuana vapes and have been to the hospital.
“We have had issues already this year, and we have worked with the school district who’s been really on top of that with us to try to curb vaping in schools,” he said.
Budensiek said the top complaint about crime in schools involves kids vaping.
“In these cases … that’s 2,500 vapes that likely would have ended up in our youth’s hands, of course adults could get them too, but in our youth’s hands, and we were able to prevent that,” Budensiek said.
Budensiek said there was so much evidence, it took two days to process it, and additional charges could be coming.
He said investigators found shipping containers with the labels removed.
It appeared the drugs were being shipped to Martin County from another area, which Budensiek suspected was California.
Gomez-Colin was held Feb. 6 on $840,000 bail in the Martin County Jail on 13 charges, including trafficking in cannabis in excess of 25 pounds; trafficking in cocaine; and possession of cocaine, according to records and a jail official.
A woman identified as the girlfriend of Gomez-Colin, 22-year-old Crystal Virginia Cazarez, was arrested on charges of trafficking in cannabis in excess of 25 pounds and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, records show.
She was held Feb. 6, on $210,000 bond, a jail official said.
(This story was updated with more information.)
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida man ‘major drug trafficker’ identified after school complaint
Reporting by Will Greenlee, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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