A Leesburg man was arrested after a traffic stop and later found to have a methamphetamine pipe concealed in his underwear.
A Fruitland Park police officer noticed a silver Ford pickup truck with one functioning headlight stopped Monday night at a red light at the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 27/441 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The officer performed a traffic stop when the Ford truck turned west onto Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The officer explained the reason for the stop and asked the driver for his license and his two passengers for their identifications. The two passengers seemed “extremely nervous,” with shallow rapid breathing and lack of eye contact, according to the arrest report. A records check showed a female passenger had an outstanding arrest warrant for cocaine possession out of New Hampshire with limited extradition, according to the arrest report. The male passenger, 51-year-old Theodore Dwight Byrne Jr., had prior charges for narcotics possession. Both the woman and Byrne consented to a search of their persons. Byrne had a package containing a clear crystal like substance and $1,480 in his pockets. He claimed that he runs a landscaping business and had just gotten paid for a job. He said that an employee left the crystal substance in his truck and he was planning on throwing it away. He said the substance was either cocaine or ice, the street name for methamphetamine, according to the police report. Nothing was found on the woman.
While being transported to the Lake County Jail he claimed that he had been given a meth pipe by the woman and had hidden it under his scrotum.
Byrne was booked at the Lake County Jail on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released after posting $3,000 bond.