A Fruitland Park man was arrested after officers found fentanyl and a glass pipe in his vehicle during a traffic stop.
Officers on patrol observed 43-year-old Markus Antwon Roshell driving a blue Ford Explorer eastbound on Harlem Avenue around 6:50 p.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. The vehicle’s window tint appeared below the legal limit, so the officers conducted a traffic stop after the vehicle pulled into a driveway on Tuskegee Street.
They then tested the window tint, confirming it was too dark at 9%. When questioned, Roshell stated that he and the occupants were coming from a nearby laundromat. He did not know anyone who lived at the home he pulled into, and no one inside the car knew who lived there, the report said.
An officer next asked if there were any narcotics or weapons within the vehicle, which Roshell denied. But another officer noticed a clear baggie shoved into the vehicle’s sunroof. A K-9 unit with the Fruitland Park Police Department subsequently responded to the scene and alerted to the odor of narcotics, the report said.
Roshell and two other occupants were removed from the vehicle so the officers could search it. They discovered the baggie in the sunroof contained 0.17 grams of fentanyl. There was also a multicolored glass pipe with burnt, charred residue shoved between the driver’s seat and center console, along with a silver push rod used to pack marijuana into the pipe, the report said.
Roshell later claimed ownership of the glass pipe and denied knowledge of the fentanyl. He stated his narcotics of choice were cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, the report said.
He was arrested on charges of possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia before being booked at the Lake County Jail without bond.
Roshell was also arrested earlier this year in January after being stopped with a “litany” of drug-related items and narcotics. Prior to this, he was arrested in March 2021 on more drug charges after his vehicle ran out of gas in a roundabout.