A Lake County Jail
drug-smuggling inquiry nets nine arrests, including David Mariotti, charged last month in the death of an elderly Leesburg woman.
A three-month investigation into an influx of drugs in the Lake County Jail ended recently with the dismantling of a group accused of bringing marijuana, Xanax and Suboxone in for inmates.
Detectives said Friday the inmates had several ways to get the drugs inside, including using a fire-extinguisher pin and screw to drill holes in the plexiglass windows in the jail’s visitation area, letting visitors slip things through, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Other drugs were left in trash bags on the side of the road, where inmate work crews were cleaning, the Sheriff’s Office said. The inmate would allegedly collect the items and then sneak them back inside.
Detectives said they also found Suboxone, a prescription medication given to people addicted to opiates such as heroin, underneath postage stamps on letters mailed to inmates.
“They’d leave enough adhesive around the stamp so it’d still stick to the envelope,” said an undercover detective wearing a mask to protect his identity.
Detention deputies alerted detectives to a potential problem after noticing an increased amount of narcotics coming into the jail, the Sheriff ’s Office said.
Detectives started monitoring phone conversations and conducted surveillance inside the jail, and found suspects most often used inmate phones to communicate and coordinate the smuggling, the Sheriff ’s Office said.
They eventually identified six inmates who were working with four people on the outside to bring in the drugs.
As of Friday, detectives were still searching for one of the four.
All 10 face charges of conspiracy to introduce contraband into a county detention facility, solicitation to introduce contraband and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
One of those arrested is Christina Obregon, daughter of Andres Obregon, who is running for Lake County sheriff. Andres Obregon, a former deputy sheriff and border-patrol agent, is on Tuesday’s primary ballot.
One of his opponents in the GOP race is the Sheriff ’s Office second-in-command, Chief Deputy Peyton Grinnell.
Lt. John Herrell, a sheriff’s spokesman, called the timing of the arrest of Obregon’s daughter “completely coincidental.”
“We didn’t want to wait around and allow more drugs to come in,” he said.
Also charged is David Mariotti, who was arrested last month in the slaying of Bernadine Montgomery, 84, who disappeared from her Leesburg home in June. Mariotti is accused of strangling the woman and dumping her body somewhere in the Ocala National Forest.
The others charged are: Scott Beekman, Fabian Sanchez, Lance Hanson, Jesse Hall, Clifton Crews, Steven Belisle, Jasmic Holden and Jacqueline Brown.