Manatee man and live-in girlfriend arrested after undercover buy bust

MANATEE -- A man and his live-in girlfriend were arrested Monday following an undercover drug operation, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

John M. Lucas IV, 32, and Tracie P. Swart, 25, were arrested after they sold an undercover detective two Dilaudid pills and a bag of heroin, according to a release from the sheriff's office. The deal was arranged to take place at the Shell station located at 301 Blvd and 9th Street East. Deputies said Lucas arrived and sold the drugs to an undercover detective in exchange for $90. He was immediately arrested, according to a release.

Detectives then went to Lucas' residence in the 5000 block of 9th Street East to arrest Swart on three warrants for heroin sales, the release said. Detectives reported seeing scales, baggies, and hypodermic needles at the residence.

The sheriff's office then got a search warrant that night and discovered a loaded 9mm Glock 27 handgun, a small duffle bag of ammunition including, several hundred rounds of AR-15 ammunition, loaded AR-15 magazines, and AR-15 rifle parts. Numerous items of paraphernalia were also seized. The only narcotics seized were four 30mg oxycodone pills, the sheriff's office said.

Several undercover purchases of heroin have been made from both Swart and Lucas, according to deputies. Deputies said testing on some of the bags of heroin purchased from the duo have shown a strong presence of the drug Fentanyl mixed with the heroin, which is believed to be a factor in many of the overdose deaths in Manatee County.

Lucas was charged with the sale of heroin and of Dilaudid, deputies said. He also had an arrest warrant for the sale of heroin out of Manatee County. Swart had 3 arrest warrants for the sale of heroin out of Manatee County. Booking information for Lucas and Swart was not immediately available on the sheriff's office website.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Manatee man and live-in girlfriend arrested after undercover buy bust ."