Local

Drug agents say owner used car wash to traffic cocaine

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Drug agents said the owner of an Orange County car wash was using the business to traffic cocaine.
 
Bay Splash Hand Car Wash is located on Vineland Avenue in the Disney area.
           
Undercover investigators said Lawrence Fonseca Jr. sold them cocaine in the office of his car wash. They said Fonseca promised to sell them much more in the future.
 
Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force investigators said Fonseca was using his business as a place to traffic large amounts of cocaine.
 
Employees at the car wash told Channel 9's Jeff Deal that they didn't know anything about the alleged drug trafficking. Fonseca wasn't at the business when Deal stopped in Friday afternoon.
 
It's not Fonseca's first run-in with drug agents. He was out on bond for another drug trafficking case.
 
In May, Channel 9 reported that Fonseca was one of 18 people busted in what Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation agents said was an active drug trafficking organization.
 
In that case, Fonseca was accused of smuggling marijuana from Texas. Investigators said the pot was hidden inside a water heater.
 
Fonseca's Kissimmee neighbors said he lives with his wife and small child and seems to be a nice, hard-working man,'.
 
"It's really surprising," one neighbor said. "It really surprises me."
 
The owner who rents the car wash space to Fonseca said he wants Fonseca gone.
 
"They need to close. They need to close, because you know it's bad business," the man told Deal.