Uber driver tries to sell shrooms to riders he didn’t know were cops, Florida deputies say
A group of narcotics investigators attending a conference in north Florida hopped into an Uber to grab dinner — then the driver tried to sell them psychedelic mushrooms, a sheriff’s office said.
In August, investigators for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office were in Miramar Beach for the Florida Narcotics Officers’ Association Annual Conference, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said in a Feb. 23 news release.
A few of them wanted to go out to dinner, so they decided to order an Uber, the sheriff’s office said.
A 52-year-old man from Crestview picked up the investigators, the sheriff’s office said, and they immediately noticed the aroma of marijuana inside the vehicle.
They chatted with the driver, not sharing their occupation, and then the driver opened his glove box, deputies said.
Inside was a bag of Psilocybin mushrooms, the sheriff’s office said, and the driver offered to sell the mushrooms to the investigators, who declined.
The investigators told Walton County VICE/Narcotics investigators, who were also attending the conference, about their ride, and the two agencies hatched a plan for a sting operation, the sheriff’s office said.
The next day, the investigators from Citrus County met up with the Uber driver and asked to buy drugs, deputies said.
“During the buy, (the man) sold the CCSO investigators 134 grams of Psilocybin mushrooms, 10 Psilocybin mushroom capsules, and 12 doses of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) for $1,000,” the sheriff’s office said. “During the purchase, (the Uber driver) told detectives he would be willing to mail a supply as well.”
Over the next few months, the Citrus County investigators stayed in contact with the driver, who told them he traveled anywhere from Destin to Panama City Beach, according to the sheriff’s office.
The investigators told the man they were planning on heading back to Miramar Beach for a vacation in February and asked if they could meet up to buy more drugs from him, the sheriff’s office said.
He agreed, and on Feb. 21, an undercover detective scheduled a meet-up with the driver for a quarter-pound of mushrooms and 200 doses of LSD, totaling $5,000, the sheriff’s office said.
On the way to the meet-up, the driver was pulled over in a traffic stop, and a K-9 officer discovered the drugs inside his vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office.
The driver was taken into custody and charged with two counts of selling a hallucinogen, tracking in LSD, possession of a hallucinogen with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of using a two-way communication device in the commission of a felony, according to Walton County deputies.
“While these types of cases aren’t the primary focus of our VICE/Narcotics investigations, this one kind of came to us,” Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in the release. “He obviously makes it a habit to sell while driving Uber and that’s pretty alarming considering how teenagers and young adults frequently use driving services in the area.”
Crestview is about 150 miles west of Tallahassee.
This story was originally published February 26, 2024 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Uber driver tries to sell shrooms to riders he didn’t know were cops, Florida deputies say."
