WEIRSDALE, Fla. — New details are being released about how investigators believe a suspected drug kingpin lived under a fake identity in Central Florida for decades.
According to court records, Howard Farley Jr.’s wife told investigators she met him in St. Maarten in the Caribbean in the mid-1980s.
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Records show his first passport was issued under the identity of Timothy Brown while he was in Sydney, Australia.
Also in his application for renewal in 1998, he listed a Naples, Florida, address. Ten years later, he listed his home in Homosassa, Florida, north of the Tampa Bay area.
Records show he and his wife sold that home for $900,000.
Following his recent arrest for passport fraud at his fly-in community in Weirsdale, people sent emails of support to his wife.
One wrote, “you and Tim are one of the best liked couple(s) in the airpark.”
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Other friends who said they have known him for more than a decade wrote they “would be hard-pressed to find a man of greater integrity.”
In contrast, investigators said in court they believe Farley has lived off illicit gains from helping move cocaine across the U.S. using the rail system for decades even though he listed “carpenter” as his occupation in his 1998 passport application.
