A Leesburg man was arrested for drug possession after police caught him trespassing to use an ice machine.
Police responded to a trespass complaint at the residence of in the 2500 block of U.S. Hwy. 27/441 at around 8 a.m. Sunday, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department.
An officer spoke to the property’s owner, who advised there were individuals on his property that came from an abandoned house across the street. The owner described several incidents where those individuals would trespass on the property and tamper with his ice machine, the report said.
As he spoke, the owner pointed to 40-year-old Matthew Lee Pasco across the property by the ice machine.
Pasco began to cross the street towards the abandoned house when he spotted law enforcement, the report said. However, the officer crossed the street after him and stopped him by the sidewalk.
Paco was wearing a black backpack and standing by a chair with various items spread out, the report said. Directly beside his foot were three glass pipes used for smoking narcotics. After gaining Pasco’s consent, the officer searched the backpack to find a small glass tube with a yellow oily substance used for vaping marijuana.
The officer discovered multiple individual baggies commonly used for storing narcotics, the report said. A green baggie with white powdery residue and a homemade plastic pipe were inside the backpack, as well.
The yellow substance in the glass tube was then field tested, which was positive for THC. The officer noticed a crystalized substance that was tested for fentanyl. This result was also positive, the report said.
Pasco stated the green bag was not his, the report said. He also denied using any narcotics other than marijuana, which he claimed to have gotten from a vape shop down the street.
The Ohio native was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription of fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was transported to the Lake County Jail with bond set at $3,000.
