Florida county completes ‘largest drug seizure’ in its history

What started as a visit from a man’s probation officers, ended with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office seizing close to $1 million in drugs and setting a record for the department on June 14.

According to a press release posted to the department’s Facebook page, probation officers for Daniel Battisti had communicated their suspicions of illegal activities at Battisti’s home to the sheriff’s office tactical impact unit, which stood by as the probation officers conducted the initial contact.

The probation officers located some of the drugs and then called in the TIU detectives after obtaining a search warrant. Law enforcement officials said they found:

• 167 grams of methamphetamine.
• 100.2 grams of cocaine.
• 691 tablets of prescription drug cyclobenzaprine.
• 89 tablets of prescription drug tizanidine.
• 60 pills of ecstasy.
• 1,960 grams of marijuana.
• 30.1 pounds of processed cannabis wax.

The sheriff’s office said the street value of the drugs was estimated to be $970,000,” the largest street value seizure in the agency’s history,” the release said.

Battisti was on parole for a grand theft he was convicted of in New York, but he was allowed to be in Florida.

His new charges indicate that a child was in the residence during the time the drugs were present. He was charged with possession of a place to manufacture a controlled substance when a minor is present and trafficking in cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy.

This story was originally published June 19, 2019 at 8:48 AM.