A Lady Lake woman taken to a local hospital after swallowing several baggies of narcotics to avoid being arrested.
An officer initiated a traffic stop on a white Infinity utility vehicle with only one working headlight around 3:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. The driver, 50-year-old Erica Mary Couture, continued heading north for a bit before eventually pulling into a driveway on Micro Racetrack Road.
Couture handed over all the necessary documentation except for her license, which the officer went to check in his patrol vehicle. Meanwhile, a K-9 unit responded to the scene and positively alerted to the odor of narcotics. Couture was subsequently asked to step out of the vehicle, the report said.
She was pat down first, leading to the discovery of two pieces of folded tin foil with burnt narcotic residue in her front right pant pocket. Due to this, the officers were going to do a more in-depth search of her person. She then took several steps away from them, leaned over, put something in her mouth and tried to swallow it, the report said.
Believing these were dangerous narcotics, one of the officers put his hand under Couture’s jaw to keep her from being able to swallow. She physically resisted until she was able to swallow, and Lake County Fire immediately responded to assist, the report said.
Meanwhile, a search of the vehicle revealed a plastic straw with narcotic residue on the floor between the driver’s seat and door. There was also a small piece of cocaine on the driver’s seat. The tin foil found in Couture’s pocket was determined to contain fentanyl, the report said.
Couture was ultimately transported to UF Health Leesburg Hospital, located at 600 E Dixie Ave., Leesburg, for treatment. It was determined she had ingested 6 grams of fentanyl and 4 grams of methamphetamine, the report said.
The officers later drove over to the hospital. In the ambulance entrance, one of them noticed a baggie of methamphetamine lying on the floor with vomit on it. A second baggie with fentanyl was seen just to the left of the ambulance doors. Ambulance staff advised that the color of the vomit on the baggies was the same as the vomit they had to clean up from inside the ambulance, the report said.
Additionally, when Couture got out of her hospital bed to leave, the officers saw another bag of methamphetamine, the report said.
Couture was arrested on charges of possession of fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, tampering with evidence, possession of drug paraphernalia and resist officer without violence. The Pennsylvania native was booked at Lake County Jail and released after posting $12,000 bond.
She was also arrested in April 2022 as one of two with drugs and a gun, and she was arrested in April 2018 during a drug deal at RaceTrac.