Five are arrested on drug charges

They are accused of buying 4 pounds of cocaine in Miami every month and selling it out of a trailer off Buck Hope Road in Brooksville.

By DUANE BOURNE
Published June 7, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Acting on a tip, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office arrested five people, including a man, his brother and his son, suspected of importing 4 pounds of cocaine into Hernando County from South Florida each month.

Arrested on trafficking charges were Emilio Gonzales-Funes Sr., 50, his son, Emilio Gonzales-Funes Jr., 22, and his brother, 54-year-old Juan Lindo. Sheriff's deputies also arrested Edwardo Martinez, 18, and Yusmari Cruz, 23, as part of the three-month investigation, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Office.

"Two kilos of the narcotic, selling with profits in excess of $60,000, that is a significant amount of drugs," sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Donna Black said Monday in announcing the arrests.

The suspects were arrested on Friday after sheriff's vice and narcotics deputies followed Gonzales-Funes Sr., Cruz and Lindo to Hernando County from Miami, where the drugs were allegedly bought.

For three months, investigators had been looking into allegations that Gonzales-Funes Sr. and his brother, Lindo, were the "organizers" behind an operation that brought a significant amount of drugs into the county.

During the investigation, undercover detectives purchased drugs from Gonzalez-Funes Jr. and Martinez at 7403 Buck Hope Road, off U.S. 41 in Brooksville, Black said.

As the tips and information continued to develop, authorities learned that Lindo and Gonzalez Sr., who goes by the name "Papi," used the mobile home on Buck Hope Road to arrange the sale of cocaine.

The narcotics, however, were being stored at a 4-acre parcel on Wiscon Road, east of California Street, officials said. The storage location is about 2 miles from another compound on Wiscon Road, where sheriff's deputies in February arrested seven suspects on drugs and weapons charges. Black said the two operations were not linked.

Black said that both groups operated in a similar fashion. The dealers arranged a sale in one location and sold the drugs somewhere else. Black, however, stopped short of calling the suspects arrested Friday large-scale dealers or street-level peddlers.

"We don't look at it as being small or big dealers. It does not matter to us," Black said. "We are arresting people who bring illegal narcotics into the community and selling them to our citizens. Even if it's a small amount, it is a small amount we are taking off the streets."

As part of the investigation, Hernando deputies conducted two search warrants on Friday and confiscated 9.1 ounces of powdered cocaine. The drugs were valued at $15,700, according to Black.

On Monday, the suspects remained at the Hernando County Jail on various drug trafficking charges. Gonzales-Funes Sr. and Lindo were being held on $250,000 and $50,000 bail, respectively.

If convicted, they face a minimum mandatory sentence of three years in prison because of the amount of cocaine recovered, authorities said.

--Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114 or dbourne@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 7, 2005, 02:15:48]