A seat belt-less Leesburg man was jailed on drug charges recently after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy spotted him traveling at 55 mph in a 45-mph speed zone.
The deputy stopped the 2005 gray Buick sedan in the parking lot of Brooks Buck & Does grocery store at 21075 S.E. Hwy. 42 in Umatilla and the driver, 31-year-old Jon Paul Kerouac, exited and started walking toward the back of his vehicle. He then told the deputy that his driver’s license was suspended, a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy confirmed Kerouac’s license had been suspended on Sept. 23, 2019 for a financial responsibility. He was then placed under arrest and the deputy located plastic baggies containing a fine white powder, folded pieces of foil paper containing a fine white powder, a blue straw that had been cut and contained a white residue inside it and a metal tool that appeared to be modified and was “consistent with packaging illegal narcotics,” the report says.
The fine white powder tested positive for Fentanyl and the residue on the straw tested positive for methamphetamine, the report says. The deputy also reported that the fine white powder was “packaged in a way consistent with illegal narcotics distribution,” the report says.
Kerouac, who lives at 2294 Knollwood Dr. in Leesburg, was transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with distribution of synthetic narcotics, possession and/or use of drug equipment and driving with a suspended or revoked license. He was being held on $3,000 bond and is due in court April 27 at 9 a.m., jail records show.