Leesburg police officers are being lauded for recovering a stolen high-end vehicle and a handgun this past weekend.
Officers responded to the area of Citizens Boulevard and W North Boulevard on Friday at 4:41 p.m. in reference to an assist for OnStar, which was tracking a stolen black 2019 four-door Cadillac.
OnStar officials advised the officers they would blink the vehicle’s lights to assist them in locating it. A short time later, an officer reported seeing the Cadillac in the parking lot of H&R Block, located at 1328 W North Blvd., a police report states.
When officers arrived, there were two people in the vehicle. After confirming the Cadillac had been stolen in Orlando, the driver, 21-year-old John J. Ilienes, was arrested and placed in the back of a patrol vehicle, the report says.
Officers searched the Cadillac and located a loaded Bersa .40-caliber handgun with five rounds of ammunition in the magazine and a small amount of marijuana on the driver’s side floorboard. They located several credit/debit cards that didn’t belong to Ilienes and a mask and hooded shirt “consistent with someone committing armed robberies.” And a background check showed that Ilienes’ driver’s license had been indefinitely suspended on Jan. 24, 2017 for failure to pay a financial obligation, the report says.
Ilienes was transported to the Leesburg Police Department for processing and then taken to the Lake County Jail, where he was charged with possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams, possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon, theft of a vehicle, using or displaying a firearm during a felony, carrying a concealed unlicensed firearm and driving with a license suspended or revoked with knowledge.
Ilienes, who lives at 7332 Woodhill Park Drive, number 1210, in the Woodhill Apartments in Orlando, is being held on $25,500 bond and is due in court on June 3 to answer to the charges.
