A Leesburg man was arrested early Saturday after methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were found under a backpack allegedly belonging to him.
Shortly after 4 a.m., a Leesburg Police officer conducting a routine patrol in the area of Euclid Avenue and Lilly Street observed a white Honda Civic parked in a vacant lot at 304 Euclid Ave. The vehicle was occupied by two men, with 47-year-old Mark Anthony Perreault sitting in the front passenger seat with the door open, according to the police report.
As the officer was parking the patrol vehicle to meet with the men, Perreault immediately got out of the vehicle to meet him in the roadway. The officer asked Perreault what he and the driver were doing, and Perreault said he didn’t know the driver and had only gotten a ride from him. Asked if he lived at 304 Euclid Ave., Perreault said, “no, I don’t live anywhere because I’m homeless,” the report said.
Perreault gave the officer his Florida ID card and sat on the sidewalk while the officer went to speak to the driver. Asked how he knew Perreault, the driver said he saw him on the side of the road and decided to give him a ride to this residence. He said the two were sitting in the vehicle talking until he had to leave to go to work, according to the report.
The officer asked the driver if there was anything illegal inside the vehicle – for example guns, drugs, or knives – and he said there was not. The driver gave permission to search the vehicle, and the officer found a black backpack on the front passenger floorboard. Asked if the backpack was his, the driver said no, it belonged to Perreault, the report said.
The officer asked Perreault if the backpack was his and he said the only thing in the car that was his was the bicycle in the back. As the officer lifted the backpack, he saw a clear Ziploc plastic bag containing a white crystal-like substance that later tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the report.
Lying next to the baggie was a glass bulb pipe with white crystal residue on the stem and black residue inside the bulb. Next to the pipe was a green torch lighter. On the passenger seat was a blue straw cut in half. One end of the straw was burnt and the other contained the white crystal-like substance, the report said.
Because Perreault had been sitting in the passenger seat, which is where the items were located, and at no time did the officer see the driver make any type of movements towards the passenger side, the officer determined the items belonged to Perreault and placed him under arrest. Perreault was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug equipment, and violating the conditions of his release on prior charges of arson and robbery.
Perreault, whose address was listed in the report as 115 N. 13th St., is being held in the Lake County Jail on $3,000 bond and will appear in Lake County Court on May 3.
