PORT CHARLOTTE, FL – On Thursday, July 15, 2021, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit, with assistance from several additional units, executed a search warrant at 3174 Brooklyn Avenue in Port Charlotte. Deputies announced themselves on arrival and commanded the occupants of the home to exit. Two occupants complied; however, two others, Jonathan King, 35, and Mariah Merchant, 29, did not. As deputies entered the home, they located King and Merchant, each in separate bathrooms standing near the toilets. Both were detained, pending the outcome of the search warrant.
King was searched, and on his person deputies located over $3,800 in cash as well as a baggie containing 7.8g of methamphetamine. Additionally, deputies discovered trace amounts of fentanyl on his hands.
In the master bedroom (with the bathroom where King was located), deputies discovered a safe. The safe contained a total of 56 various pills and a digital scale. The pills were identified as Buprenorphine Hydrochloride (x13), Methadone Hydrochloride (x25), and Naproxen (x18 – not a controlled substance).
Inside the other bedrooms, deputies located various baggies containing a total of 24.6g of fentanyl, 7.5g of methamphetamine, 3 Pyrex smoking pipes (testing positive for methamphetamine residue), a bottle of Methadone, and 3 unidentified pills.
After interviewing all 4 occupants, probable cause was found for the arrest of Mariah Merchant for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia with a bond set at $2,500. Jonathan King was denied bond and faces Trafficking in Fentanyl, Possession of Methamphetamine, Methadone, Buprenorphine Hydrochloride and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
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