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Drug raid leads to arrest, seizures

Among items seized was a high-powered pistol. A sheriff's spokesman says deputies are finding more and more armed drug traffickers and dealers.

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published April 21, 2006

LARGO - The Pinellas County sheriff's SWAT team raided a Largo home this week, arresting a man and seizing drugs, cash and a .357-caliber Magnum revolver.

It was at least the third such drug raid in central and north Pinellas in the past week, authorities said.

Statistics were unavailable Thursday, but sheriff's Capt. Michael Platt, supervisor of the narcotics unit, said investigators had been busy lately.

"We are seeing more and more armed trafficking and armed distributors," Platt said.

In the most recent case, at 11 p.m. Tuesday, the SWAT team raided a home at 12085 137th Ave. N in Largo, Platt said. Once inside, they arrested Alfred K. Morris, 20, and found $9,500 in cash, the revolver, ammunition and small amounts of crack cocaine, marijuana and hydrocodone.

Morris, who has been charged with drug possession, was being held Thursday in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Sheriff's investigators were searching for other people linked to drug sales at the home between Taylor Park and Ulmerton Road, Platt said. Undercover detectives had conducted several drug buys at the home in the past month, he said.

"Every time we went, we were able to buy drugs," Platt said. "The house is kind of what we would call a drug hole, a place that everyone hangs out at and someone is dealing out of there."

The other two drug raids in the past week occurred at a home on Grosse Avenue in Tarpon Springs and one on Huron Avenue in Oldsmar.

Closing down these drug-dealing operations sends a positive message to residents living around them, the captain said.

"We make a statement by going in," Platt said. "It shows other people that the good guys are here, too. . . . Afterward, there's always a lot of people who peer out their window and say, "Thank God.' "

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 08:00:25]