A Villages Charter School graduate pursuing a medical career was nabbed Sunday night with a large quantity of drugs.
Monica Racy, a clinical research assistant at the University of South Florida in Tampa, was pulled over at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday after her gray 2018 Volkswagen Jetta swerved into the path of a Sumter County sheriff’s deputy’s vehicle on County Road 229 south of County Road 462. Prior to the traffic stop, Racy had been paced driving 65 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone on County Road 462.
The 20-year-old, who previously worked at Properties of The Villages, was initially “slow to respond,” but then began to “frantically” move items around in the vehicle, the deputy wrote in the arrest report.
“I observed her to place a backpack and a large Amazon envelope from the front passenger seat to the rear seat and attempt to place a scarf over the items,” the deputy wrote.
Racy said she was tired and in a rush to get to her mother’s house.
A K-9 unit was summoned to the scene and the dog alerted on the VW Jetta.
The backpack was found to contain a bag of cocaine, two rolled-up $1 bills containing a powdery white substance, a 2mg Alprazolam pill and a bag of marijuana.
The Amazon envelope contained more than 60 bags of hallucinogenic mushrooms, two bags of marijuana, methamphetamine and pills including Alprazolam and Amphetamine. There were also LSD and three packages of a Nerds THC candy “clearly labeled as containing the controlled substance THC,” the report said.
At USF, Racy has been, “Responsible for recruiting, educating, screening, and consenting patients with Type I and II Diabetes Mellitus throughout various clinical research projects,” according to her LinkedIn page. She is pursuing a master’s degree in public health at USF.
Racy has no previous criminal history, the arrest report indicated.
Racy was arrested on multiple charges of drug possession with intent to distribute. She was booked on $24,000 bond at the Sumter County Detention Center.