A Citra man was arrested late Wednesday night at the entrance to Del Webb Spruce Creek after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy stopped him for having a faulty taglight.
Carlos Alberto Vega-Miranda, 48, showed the deputy his driver’s license and a notice of suspension. A computer check of Vega-Miranda’s driving record showed that his license was suspended on Jan. 8 for failure to pay a traffic citation, a sheriff’s office report states.
A short time later, a sheriff’s K-9 alerted on Vega-Miranda’s vehicle, indicating the odor of narcotics. During a search of the car, deputies found a brown paper bag containing a long, green metallic pipe, along with a snuff can that contained foam cutouts in it. Inside the can was a glass vial containing a white powdery substance that field tested positive for cocaine, a clear plastic straw and a metallic object, the report says.
A green book bag in the car’s back seat contained a smaller black bag with two small blue pills that were later identified as Alprazolam and four white pills identified as Tramadol. And a green leafy substance that tested positive for marijuana also was found, as was a white rock-like substance that tested positive for cocaine, the report says.
Vega-Miranda, who lives at 13404 NE Jacksonville Rd. in Citra, told deputies that he knew a “weed pipe” and the green book bag were in the vehicle. But he said the pipe wasn’t his, as he found it in a car he was cleaning for an auction and kept it. And he added that he didn’t know the drugs were in the book bag, the report says.
Vega-Miranda was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with three felony counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams, two counts of possession of drug equipment and driving with a suspended license. He was held on $8,000 bond.
Vega-Miranda is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been housed at the jail five times since April 2010. He also was booked into the facility shortly after midnight on Aug. 28 on charges of possession of cocaine and drug equipment. And he spent nine days in jail before being released on $3,000 bond.
