Key West The Newspaper

An alleged drug dealer, out on bond after being arrested in October, is back in jail facing further felony charges.

Benjamin Lawrence, 31, was facing three felony counts for selling crack cocaine and two other felony charges for using a communication device for drug sales. After Lawrence posted $145,000 in bail, the Key West Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit purchased crack cocaine from Lawrence during an undercover operation.

On April 11th, detectives arrested Lawrence at the 1000 block of Emma Street. They noticed he was wearing three shirts and two sets of underwear beneath his shorts. According to detectives, it’s not uncommon for drug dealers to hide drugs in their underwear. Lawrence denied he was concealing drugs, but detectives warned him that if he were, he would face additional charges if he smuggled any contraband into the jail.

Detectives were suspicious and watched Lawrence closely while transporting him to jail to ensure he didn’t try and remove anything from his underwear while en route.

Just before arriving at the jail, Lawrence admitted that he had crack cocaine, powder cocaine, oxycodone pills and marijuana in his underwear.

Once at the jail, 12.6 grams of crack cocaine, 8 grams of powder cocaine, two Oxycodone pills and one gram of marijuana were recovered from Lawrence’s underwear. He was additionally charged with possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of marijuana.

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Note: Information in this crime report was provided by local law enforcement.  Please remember all suspects are innocent until proven guilty.