Marathon man arrested Saturday for stealing truck

A Marathon man was arrested Saturday after he stole his girlfriend’s truck.

The owner of the 2006 GMC truck called the Sheriff’s Office on Saturday to report her truck stolen. She said she knew her boyfriend, 46 year old Roger Green, stole the truck because she saw him driving it.

She said she and her sister went out on Saturday evening; she said Green found her in a local bar and asked to borrow the truck. She said she refused because she knew his license was suspended. She said when she got to her 107th Street home later that night, the truck was gone from her house. She discovered money missing from the house as well. The money was kept in a large 5 gallon plastic water bottle, which had been taken from inside the house.

She said she drove around town and spotted him driving the truck. She tried to follow him but lost him. She called the Sheriff’s Office and Deputy William Daniels responded. While the deputy was at her house taking a report, the victim reviewed surveillance video. Green was on the video walking out of her house carrying something; the video shows him leaving the house driving the truck.

While Deputy Daniels was still with the victim, Deputy Orlando Alvarez spotted the truck northbound at the 49 mile marker of the highway at 11 p.m. He pulled it over. Green was driving. A check on his name revealed his license was suspended. A large plastic jar of cash was in the back seat of the truck.

Green was arrested. He was charged with driving with license suspended, grand theft and grand theft of a vehicle. He was booked into jail.

Key Largo man charged with fraudulent credit card use

A Key Largo man was arrested Sunday, charged with fraudulently using someone else’s credit card to purchase items from several stores in the Upper Keys.

The credit cards were stolen during a vehicle burglary reported to the Sheriff’s Office on March 20th. The vehicle was parked on Jewfish Avenue in Key Largo when someone entered it and took a wallet from inside.

That same day, the credit cards in the wallet were used several times, at World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada, at Diver’s Direct in Key Largo and at West Marine in Key Largo.

Detective Barney Sajdak was assigned to investigate the cases. When he went to World Wide Sportsman, he found out the person who’d used the fraudulent credit cards had also used a Rewards Card in the name of Omar Pupo, 41 years old of Key Largo.

He went to Diver’s Direct and West Marine. At both businesses, clerks at the stores were able to identify Pupo from a photo lineup as the man that used the fraudulent credit cards in their stores.

Detective Sajdak obtained warrants for Pupo for the fraudulent purchases. On Saturday, he was arrested. He was charged with three counts of grand theft, one count of theft, four counts fraudulent use of a credit card and nine counts of obtaining property by fraud. He was booked into jail.

Two charged with drug sales

A Marathon man and a Stock Island man were arrested Friday on outstanding warrants related to drug sales. The warrants were issued as part of an ongoing investigation by Sheriff’s Special Investigations detectives into drug sales in the Florida Keys.

29 year old Austin Nichols of Marathon was arrested Friday for three counts sale of heroin and one count sale of cocaine. Nichols sold the illegal substances to an undercover operative on three occasions outside a Marathon residence.

46 year old William Roberts was arrested Friday for cocaine trafficking, sale of cocaine and two counts use of a two way communications device to facilitate a felony. He sold 1.5 ounces of cocaine in January to an undercover operative in a parking lot on MacDonald Avenue, Stock Island. He subsequently sold a crack cocaine cookie in February to an undercover operative at a store on Emma Street in Key West.

Both men were booked into jail.

Arrest for prescription fraud

A Key Largo woman was arrested Monday, charged with forging prescriptions for Percocet.

On July 15th, Deputy James Jenkins responded to Mariner’s Hospital to speak with a doctor there who was concerned that someone had forged two prescriptions for Percocet and that his signature was forged on the prescription forms.

He told Deputy Jenkins there were a number of irregularities about the prescriptions. He said they were written using his name, but utilizing a Mariner’s Hospital prescription pad. He said he only writes prescriptions on his personal prescription pad, not the hospital’s. He also said the prescriptions were written for 30 pills the first time and 40 pills the second time. He said he never writes prescriptions for that many pills.

The doctor said he was contacted by a pharmacist at the CVS Pharmacy about it because she was suspicious about the prescriptions. The pharmacist sent him copies of the prescriptions and he verified the signature was not his actual signature and the DEA # used was not his correct number.

The prescriptions were written on February 13th and April 13th to 30 year old Key Largo resident Heather Born, who at the time worked as a nurse at Mariner’s Hospital. The doctor said he has never seen Born as a patient, nor did he write the two prescriptions to her for Percocet.

A warrant was issued for Born and on Monday she was arrested and charged with two counts forgery to obtain a controlled prescription, two counts possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and two counts of theft.

Bondsman charged with open carry of firearm

A bondsman was arrested Tuesday for openly carrying a firearm.

On July 8th, the Sheriff’s Office responded to the Circle K store at the 92.7 mile marker of the highway. The clerk told Deputy Paul Rocha she was concerned about a man who had come in the store wearing two badges she said looked like police badges and with a gun in a holster on his hip and another tucked in the back of his pants. She became more alarmed after he said “in light of recent events if you have any problems or anyone resists just shoot them.”

Deputy Rocha reviewed surveillance footage from the store and saw the man on the video. He was wearing a black polo shirt, jeans, had the guns and the badges as described by the clerk. The man was also wearing handcuffs and a Taser.

Deputy Rocha was able to identify the man as 44 year old Vernon Jones, of Miami, a bondsman who operates in the Florida Keys.

A warrant was obtained for his arrest. On Tuesday he was booked into jail on charges of open carrying of a firearm.

Key Largo man arrested for drugs

Following citizen complaints of suspected drug activity a Key Largo man was arrested Tuesday on drug charges.

Sheriff’s detectives from the Special Investigations Unit received citizen complaints about possible drug activity on Lakeview Drive in Key Largo. The person making the complaint specifically spoke about a man operating a motorcycle on the street frequently in a reckless manner.

On Tuesday, at 5 p.m., detectives were in that area when they spotted 35 year old Kristian Demblans, who lives on Lakeview Drive, operating a motorcycle on the street. The detectives knew Demblans had a suspended driver’s license and had no motorcycle endorsement on his license. They pulled him over and placed him into custody for the violations.

A search of Demblans and the motorcycle turned up crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and drug paraphernalia along with a large amount of cash. Demblans was additionally charged with possession of all of those illegal substances. He was booked into jail.

Marine violations

Lower Keys Marine Deputy James Hager was patrolling during the two day sport lobster season today when he saw three men harvesting lobster near the north end of Spanish Harbor Bridge on the bay side. Upon inspecting their catch, he observed several violations.

Maksim Parshin of Miami, Alexey Ivanenko of Hollywood and Valeriy Gerber of Sunny Isles beach were all cited for possession of undersize lobster, possession of speared lobster and harvesting lobster without a measuring device.

This is just one of a number of marine violations deputies found both on land and on the water during the course of the day.