1 arrested in raid at Orlando rental property of state Rep. Linda Stewart

ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando home owned by state Rep. Linda Stewart was the target of a raid by federal and local drug agents, Channel 9 has learned.

Channel 9's Jeff Deal said Homeland Security Investigations is leading the investigation and that the suspects living in the Barcelona Street house were tenants of Stewart's.

Agents from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, the FBI and the Orlando Police Department were at the scene Wednesday going through the property and arresting at least one person.

Deal was there as a number of men were handcuffed and questioned by investigators before being released.

Neighbors said they believe the law enforcement activity was part of a drug investigation.

The home is owned by Stewart, a former Orange County commissioner, and is rented out to tenants, Channel 9 learned.

Stewart told Channel 9 the tenants haven't been paying their rent, and she's been trying to evict them since last month.

"They seemed like they were criminal squatters or something and I'm certainly not going to approve of anything like that," she said.

She was at the scene Wednesday and said she was glad to see the agents there.

"I am thrilled. I couldn't be happier that they have gone over there. I have been trying to get these folks out of my house now since February 13," Stewart said.

"She's sitting there saying we're squatters and (expletive), we're not squatters at all and she's actually collected rent from our hands," said one of the men who talked to Deal.

One man told Deal that they drank beer and smoked some crack cocaine in the house, but he denied there was any type of drug dealing or prostitution.

"What are they asking you about?" Deal asked another one of the cuffed men.

"Nothing," the man said. "(Expletive) you. (Expletive) you."

Darrell Roby, the man who was arrested Tuesday, was also arrested last year in a raid of a home where drugs and prostitution were suspected.

While neighbors suspected drug activity at the home, Channel 9 later learned Roby was arrested on a federal weapons charge.

WFTV