A Leesburg woman was arrested when officers caught her driving without a license and with drug residue in her purse.
An officer noticed a black Volkswagen passenger car in front of him on County Road 452 at :14 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, according to an arrest report from the Eustis Police Department. While the officer drove the posted 45-mph speed limit, the vehicle accelerated away from him. The officer sped up, positioned himself behind the Volkswagen and paced it at 55 mph.
This led the officer to conduct a traffic stop and make contact with the driver, 24-year-old Itzel Teniente Lara, and a male passenger. The officer explained the reason for the stop before requesting Lara’s license. She instead handed him an ID card from Mexico, the report said.
The officer asked Lara if she had a valid license, which she denied. She appeared nervous, repeating over and over that she had to go to the bathroom which she cited as the reason she was driving with no license. However, the passenger provided the officer with his driver’s license, the report said.
The officer returned to his vehicle and began checking records on both occupants. While doing so, three more officers arrived on scene as backup. One of them began a criminal traffic citation in reference to Lara having no license, the report said.
As the citation was completed, a K-9 was retrieved to conduct an open-air sniff of the Volkswagen. The K-9 eventually approached the front driver’s side door where it briefly stopped and took deep sniffs up the seam of the vehicle. It did another sniff around the vehicle before stopping at the same place, showing a positive alert to the odor of narcotics, the report said.
The K-9 was returned to a patrol vehicle while the backup officers had Lara and the passenger step out. One of the officers noticed Lara get out with her purse and told her that due to the alert from his K-9 partner, he would need to search her purse before she took it away from the vehicle. She first refused several times to give him the purse but eventually handed it over, the report said.
As soon as the officer opened the purse, he saw a clear plastic bag with white residue inside believed to be cocaine. He also found a silver metal straw with white residue inside matching what was in the bag. The report noted the officer recognized straws to be commonly used in the illegal inhalation of illicit narcotics through the nose.
The officer later field tested the white powder which yielded a presumptive positive result for cocaine. Lara was detained in handcuffs at that point. A search of the vehicle revealed no other illegal contraband, the report said.
Lara was charged with no driver’s license never had one and possession of drug paraphernalia. The native of Mexico was transported to Lake County Jail and released after posting $1,000 bond.