A man who had previously been arrested for several offenses but was rarely prosecuted was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to 15 years in prison in a 2023 case, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
According to an arrest affidavit, Emmanuel Cazeau, now 41, of Eustis, was stopped by Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies in June 2023 for a minor traffic offense as he exited Circle K, at the intersection of County Road 44 and County Road 473 in unincorporated Leesburg.
Deputies requested permission to search Cazeau’s vehicle, which he declined, and K9 Jim and his handler conducted an open-air sniff on it. K9 Jim detected the odor of narcotics and removed Cazeau and his passenger from the vehicle. According to the complaint, deputies searched the vehicle and discovered a little bag of a purple substance weighing 13 grams that field tested positive for the deadly narcotic fentanyl. Cazeau was arrested on fentanyl trafficking charges.
A Lake County jury convicted Cazeau of trafficking fentanyl and heroin, as well as possession of methamphetamine, during a two-day trial earlier this month. Circuit Judge James Baxley sentenced him to 15 years in prison on Monday.
Prior to this case, Cazeau was arrested in Lake County seven times since 2019 for various offenses such as drug trafficking and felony battery; the charges were dropped in each case, according to Lake County Clerk of Court online records.
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