A Groveland man was arrested with crack cocaine after a K-9 sniffed it out in the backseat of his vehicle.
A deputy pulled over a tan Toyota passenger car for running a stop sign at Meyer Avenue and County Road 468 in Leesburg around 2:25 a.m. Thursday, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The backseat passenger, 26-year-old Billie James Rooney, was identified as the registered owner.
He and the other two occupants were looking for his insurance card when a K-9 unit was deployed to sniff around the vehicle. A positive alert to the odor of narcotics meant the trio was removed from the vehicle so it could be searched. The deputy then found crack cocaine on the backseat, the report said.
The proximity of the crack cocaine to Rooney indicated it belonged to him. The report noted he claimed it was not his, and he had given strangers rides in his vehicle that night.
Rooney was subsequently arrested on charge of possession of crack cocaine. He was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $2,500.
He was also arrested in Feb. 2023 after he was found slumped behind the wheel at a Circle K in The Villages.