Drugs, gun and money: Two unrelated traffic violations lead to two separate drug busts

Yesterday, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in Vero Beach, Florida, reported that two vehicles who had issues following the traffic laws resulted in two separate and unrelated drug busts.

In the first instance which occurred on Saturday, April 17, deputies pulled up behind a driver who was obviously driving and operating their vehicle erratically. Samantha Barone, 37, of Pompano Beach, took off after law enforcement attempted a traffic stop at the RaceTrac on County Road 512 near Interstate 95. Barone fled east on CR 512 at a high rate of speed.

The Sheriff’s Office reported that she showed no signs of stopping; so a Pursuit Intervention Technique (PIT) was performed to stop the car. After a lengthy process to get the suspect out of her car, she was taken into custody.

See the video of deputies negotiating that PIT.

A quick search of her car was performed and a glass pipe with crystal meth was found.

She was then transported to the Indian River County Jail where Corrections Deputies found a baggie of meth in her bra. Barone faces charges of possession of methamphetamine, fleeing to elude, possessing drug paraphernalia, and resisting arrest without violence.

In a separate and unrelated traffic violation, an IRCSO deputy was on patrol Monday evening, April 19, along County Road 512 near County Road 510 when he noticed a black Chevy Malibu with a headlight out. The deputy tried to stop the driver, but he wouldn’t stop. Instead, the driver doused the vehicle’s lights and continued west toward Interstate 95 at a high rate of speed.

The driver failed to negotiate a shift in the road and crashed into a cabbage palm in the median, flipping his vehicle. The deputy arrived on scene found the driver stumbling in the roadway.

The deputy reported that the driver had possibly been ejected from the vehicle.

The man then refused to comply with commands and ran to the side of his vehicle, concealing his hands near his waist. The driver was taken into custody and was transported to Holmes Regional to be treated for a broken nose and facial lacerations.

Inside the vehicle, law enforcement recovered several bookbags containing various illegal narcotics, including three pounds of marijuana, 14 grams of powder cocaine, bags of pills, and liquid TCH pens.