LAKE COUNTY, Fla.,None — A Lake County businessman is accused of trafficking drugs inside bags of cat food, and deputies said he used a local title company to accept his deliveries.
Employees at Brokers Title Co. in Leesburg received a FedEx package on Wednesday, but it was addressed to one of its clients in Washington, D.C. When contacted, that man said he knew nothing about it, so the company turned the package over to police.
"When their representative contacted this client, he was not aware of it. He had no idea of the package to be delivered there, so the employee then felt it was suspicious and for that reason turned it over to the Fruitland Park Police Department," said Lt. John Herrell of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Police received permission from the D.C. client and opened the package to find cat food filled with 260 grams of crystal meth, worth $30,000.
"The amounts being sent it's definitely distributor level amounts," said Herrell.
On Wednesday afternoon, local Realtor and investor Robert Morris called about the delivery.
Undercover agents from the sheriff's office joined the investigation and lured Morris to a parking lot to pick up the package. After a short struggle, Morris was arrested on the spot. On Thursday, he's being held on a $500,000 bond.
Employees at Brokers Title Co. told WFTV that they had no idea that the suspect in the case had allegedly used their office to move drugs for some time.
Deputies said this isn't the first time the suspect has done this. The title company said that Morris in the past had successfully picked up special packages using the title company instead of his own address.
"Due to the swift action of our detectives and the Fruitland Park Police Department, that is a tremendous amount of drugs that won't make it onto our streets, and we're glad for that," said Herrell.
On Thursday, investigators on the West Coast said they are working to solve the other pieces of the puzzle. They are trying to figure out from where the drugs came and how many of these types of transactions have happened from that location.