SANFORD, Fla. — A monthslong investigation has led to the arrest of what Sanford police are calling a “significant target.”
Investigators said Shawn O’Neal was selling guns and drugs in the middle of a neighborhood on Greenway Avenue, next to a church and school.
Police said O’Neal set up a post at a picnic table under an oak tree to sell the drugs.
“He was operating in an open-air market,” said Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith.
Investigators said he sold cocaine, marijuana, heroin, crack and guns.
Police have not gone into specifics about how many guns and the amount of drugs that allegedly were sold, or how O’Neal conducted the alleged deals.
Investigators believe O’Neal moved some of the items from Sanford to
Midway.
They said some of the guns that were sold had been stolen.
“He was dealing in large amounts of drugs, different drugs, what we would call a ‘polydrug dealer,’” said Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Jeff Walsh.
The DEA said it deputized the Sanford officers so they could make the arrest.