SANFORD, Fla.,None — A 13-year-old eighth-grader is accused of dealing drugs at Sanford Middle School. Investigators say he sold his classmates marijuana, prescription drugs and cocaine, and hid the drugs inside peppermint tins.
WFTV broke the story Wednesday night and, Thursday, investigators went public with their case.
DOCUMENT: Read Arrest Report
Onyx Mast and six of his classmate customers are in custody. Mast, police said, seemed to have bragged about how successful he was.
Mast stated in a police report, "I was selling marijuana and crushed pills to students all over the campus." He pulled $50 out of his pocket, cash he'd collected from deals on Wednesday.
Mast is charged with drug-related felonies. Police believe he was a dealer to six classmates at Sanford Middle School.
Birdella Hall-Walker has lived near the boy for years.
"To say that this is going on, and he's one of the ringleaders, is a shock to me," Hall-Walker said.
The chain of arrests started when one student at the school told safety officers that Mast had put something in his backpack. As it turns out, that student was actually one of Mast's drug customers. One by one, the group consisting of six 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old ratted each other out.
When Mast got to the dean's office Wednesday, he pulled three peppermint tins out of his pockets. The first contained cocaine, the second had marijuana, and the third was full of ground up prescription pills.
Mast and the six others each handed over their drugs and were all arrested. Mast told investigators he took the prescription drugs from his mother and sources told WFTV he got the marijuana and cocaine from high school-aged kids in his neighborhood.
"It had been going on for a while. I'm not sure exactly how long, but according to him it had been going for a while. And how he was doing it, I have no idea. He was probably pretty slick, because it didn't get caught for quite a while," said Sgt. Dave Morgenstern, Sanford police.
The six customers face misdemeanor charges, but, like Mast, they could all be expelled from school.
"All the time, all the time, I always tell her to stay away from that," parent Marisol Lugo said.
Juvenile sanctions vary widely and leave a lot of leeway to the judge, but Mast could potentially be ordered into state custody until he's 19.
Sanford Middle School is an A-rated school, like all the middle schools in Seminole County, but it is a special magnet school for math, science and technology. It attracts regular-zoned kids, but also students from across the district who are interested in those subjects.
WFTV
