Two men were arrested with drugs and ammunition in a busy construction zone on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 in Lady Lake.
An officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a silver Ford pickup with an expired registration at about 2 p.m. Monday when the vehicle indicated a left turn from U.S. Hwy. 27/441 onto Rolling Acres Road, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The pickup departed from the left turn lane and went around the line of traffic, while the left turn signal remained activated. The pickup proceeded to cut in front of another vehicle. The officer “recognized this as an attempt to avoid detection.”
After the truck pulled over in the parking lot of Village Crossroads shopping center, the officer approached the vehicle and spotted an open Heineken beer in the cupholder.
One of the occupants of the truck, 52-year-old Arthur Mathias Matt of Mount Dora, was found to be in possession of fentanyl, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. He was taken into custody and booked at the Lake County Jail on $5,000 bond.
A second occupant of the truck, 54-year-old Michael Patrick Halle of Silver Springs, was found to be in possession of a loaded magazine with six .25-caliber rounds. Halle, a convicted felon, was also wanted on a Marion County warrant charging him with failure to appear on a charge of driving while license suspended. He was arrested on a charge of possession of ammunition by a felon and booked at the jail on $10,000 bond.
