The Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team arrested two people after noticing the front-seat passenger in a black Mercedes-Benz slumped over late Wednesday night.
Members of the strike team were driving through the parking lot of the Howard Johnson’s hotel at 3961 NW Blitchton Rd. in Ocala when they noticed the Mercedes-Benz leaving. The car had no headlights on, was almost coming to a complete stop every time it rolled over speed bumps and the front-seat passenger was slumping down in the seat, leading officers to believe she was “shooting up,” a UDEST report states.
After the driver, later identified as 26-year-old Eric Michael Pazian, abruptly turned in the parking lot of a closed gas station off U.S. Hwy. 27, officers pulled alongside the car and made contact with the front-seat passenger, 33-year-old Colleen Mahoney. Officers noted in their report that both Pazian and Mahoney were attempting to conceal items. And when they approached Pazian’s side of the car, he continued to reach both hands down his waist, the report says, adding that after some hesitation he finally placed his hands on the steering wheel.
Officers found a small digital scale box and a small drawstring bag on Pazian’s lap. And they had to continually tell Mahoney to remain still and stop moving her hands around as they were speaking with her and a rear-seat passenger, the report says.
Officers also noticed that Mahoney was holding a rolled-up brown paper bag in her left hand. She admitted to “shooting up” as they left the Howard Johnson parking lot but told officers she was the only one doing so, the report says.
After a K-9 alerted to the odor of drugs in the car, officers escorted Pazian out of the vehicle and detained him. An officer asked Mahoney if she needed medical attention from the heroin she had used but she said she would be “OK.” She said she had only purchased a “dub” – known to mean $20 worth of drugs – and it was all gone, the report says, adding that after Mahoney was removed from the vehicle hey found a used syringe sitting in her seat.
Officers also found a small black bag on the right front passenger floorboard with a spoon containing residue and a wet cotton ball. Another black bag in the same area contained an unused Q-tip, needle and straw halves. And a small foil package containing suspected heroin or fentanyl was found where Mahoney had been detained outside the vehicle, the report says.
After a field test on the residue found on the spoon tested positive for fentanyl content, both Pazian and Mahoney were transported to the Marion County Jail. Mahoney, who lives in Homosassa, was charged with possession of fentanyl and drug paraphernalia. She was held on $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.
Pazian, who lives in Key West, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and violation of probation on Citrus County warrants for battery and possession of drug paraphernalia. A charge of smuggling contraband into a detention facility was added after personnel at the jail found what was believed to be a crack pipe in the pocket of his shorts, the report says.
Pazian was held without bond and is scheduled to appear in Marion County Court Sept. 4 at noon to answer to the new charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and smuggling contraband into a detention facility.
UDEST is an initiative of the North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. It is comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement from the Ocala Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security.