A Leesburg man’s failure to renew his vehicle’s registration led to his felony arrest early Thursday morning in Tavares.
An officer was on patrol when he saw the car with the expired registration near the intersection of State Road 19 and County Road 561, according to an arrest report from the Tavares Police Department. The officer stopped the car and made contact with the driver, 56-year-old Ronald E. Wilson. The officer informed Wilson of the reason for the stop and then asked Wilson if he had anything in the vehicle which may be illegal. When asked about certain narcotics, Wilson’s behavior changed and he said there was no methamphetamine in the car. He became nervous once the drug was mentioned, according to the arrest report. The Georgia native agreed to a search of the car and his person.
Another Tavares officer joined in the search of the car and found a glass smoking pipe commonly used to consume narcotics, according to the arrest report.
After discovering the drug paraphernalia, the officer conducted a pat down search of Wilson. He found a black zipper bag in his pocket which contained a capped needle which held methamphetamine. When Wilson took off his boots, he seemed to struggle getting the right boot off, according to the police report. When he finally got the boot off, a hard plastic container fell out. The substance in the container field tested as methamphetamine.
The officer turned the vehicle over to the passenger, who was not arrested.
Wilson was taken to the Lake County Jail where he was booked on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bond was set at $2,500.
