Marion County sheriff’s deputies nabbed a speeder Wednesday night who ended up being arrested on drug trafficking charges.
Eugene Clark Johnson, 47, of Ocala, was driving at close to 25 mph over the posted speed limit when deputies attempted to stop him on N U.S. 301. He continued to travel southbound and eventually stopped in the 13100 block of the highway, a sheriff’s office report states.
Johnson, who lives at 6301 NW 67th Ter. in Ocala, originally denied a deputy’s request to search his vehicle, but a short time later a sheriff’s K-9 gave a positive alert for drugs at the driver’s side door. Deputies then asked Johnson to step out of his white four-door sedan and “he began acting extremely nervous and reaching around his pockets and inside the vehicle,” the report says.
Deputies found approximately 80 grams of cocaine in Johnson’s car. He also had $11,000 and 14 Viagra pills that he could not provide a prescription for. The amount of cocaine seized during the traffic stop has an approximate street value of $8,000 and is triple the amount considered “trafficking” under Florida law, the report says.
Upon review of Johnson’s criminal history, deputies discovered that he had been sentenced to nearly a decade in the Florida prison system for multiple cocaine sale and possession charges and also for trafficking Hydrocodone.
Johnson was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with trafficking cocaine (more than 28 grams but less than 150 kilograms) and possession of a harmful new legend drug without a prescription. He was released Thursday afternoon on $51,000 bond.
Marion County Jail records show that Johnson has spent time in the facility 29 times since July 1993.
