KISSIMMEE — Two recent drug busts in Osceola County demonstrate that some local residents are viewing the production of their own drugs as a way of dealing with the bad economy.
In one instance, a local motel became the site for the production of the drug methamphetamine.
Deputies were serving a warrant on a woman renting a room at the Budgetel Motel at 4104 W. Vine St. in Kissimmee on June 11 around 7:40 p.m.
The woman staying there, Debra Scanlon, had an active felony warrant for dealing in stolen property. Upon arriving at the motel, deputies discovered more than just Scanlon that caught their interest.
“When she opened the door, deputies could see several syringes in the room,” noted Twis Lizasuain, public information officer for the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
Lizasuain said deputies asked for permission to enter the room, and Scanlon and a man she was sharing the room with, George Linkel, granted them permission.
“They located heroin and what appeared to be materials consistent with manufacturing methamphetamine,” Lizasuain noted.
Deputies contacted the Osceola County Investigative Bureau and Kissimmee Police Department to continue the investigation of the drugs. Linkel, 40, of 4519 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Scanlon, 41, of 4640 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, was arrested on the outstanding felony warrant, and both suspects were booked into the Osceola County Jail, Lizasuain noted, while adding that this investigation is on-going.
A few days earlier, on June 7, deputies arrested two Poinciana residents, Misael Delgado-Sanchez and Gort Mailenis, and charged them with trafficking marijuana and manufacturing cannabis.
This time, there was no warrant being issued — just a strong aroma in the air.
Deputies were patrolling the area around San Remo Drive and Regency Way when they noticed something.
“They could smell what appeared to be marijuana coming from a residence,” Lizasuain noted in her report on the case.
That smell was coming from 600 Regency Way in Poinciana. Deputies knocked on the door, and Sanchez allowed them to come in the house, “where they discovered small marijuana plants,” Lizasuain said. “Sanchez told deputies he was growing a few marijuana plants in the house.”
But after getting a search warrant, deputies would find 217 plants, some as tall as 5 feet in height. The Osceola County Investigative Bureau dismantled the grow house, and took into evidence more than 30 pounds of marijuana.
Sanchez, 33, and his girlfriend, Mailenis Gort, 25, of 4330 E. 8th Lane in Hialeah, were arrested and booked into the Osceola County Jail.
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