A 22-year-old man was arrested on a felony littering charge, weeks after a large dump site containing over 3,000 pounds of trash was discovered in Ocala. 

On Tuesday, February 4, a code enforcement officer with Marion County Solid Waste contacted the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in reference to a large dump site that was located near the intersection of 72nd Terrace and 144th Street Road in Ocala, according to the arrest report.  

While sorting through the piles of garbage, the code enforcement officer found a box that had a woman’s name on it, along with an address in Dunnellon.  

On Wednesday, March 12, an MCSO deputy responded to the incident location and observed two dump sites – one on the east side of 144th Street Road and the other on the west side of the same roadway. The deputy noted in the report that the debris had started to “break down” due to “having been in the elements for at least one month.”  

Less than a week later, Marion County Solid Waste officials collected the “large amount of garbage” from the two dump sites, and it was transported to the Baseline Landfill located at 5601 SE 66th Street in Ocala. Upon arrival, officials determined that the collected garbage weighed a total of 3,360 pounds, according to the report.  

On Wednesday, March 26, two deputies responded to the address that had been listed on a box recovered at the dump site. They made contact with two individuals at the property: the woman whose name was listed on the box and her son, identified in the report as Reynaldo Chicha.  

The woman advised that her son, Chicha, “takes all of her trash.” When the deputies inquired about the two dump sites, which included boxes with his mother’s name on it, Chicha initially denied dumping the garbage and claimed that the trash “sometimes blows out of the yard,” according to the report.  

After being read his Miranda rights, Chicha stated that he had been “cleaning out a shed on the south side of the property.” He further claimed that he did not have the money needed to take the miscellaneous trash to the landfill to properly dispose of it. The report stated that he was shown photos of the two illegal dumping sites, and he allegedly confirmed that he had dumped the garbage there.  

Chicha was arrested and transported to Marion County Jail. The following day, he was released from jail after posting a $5,000 bond, and he is being charged with dumping litter over 500 pounds.  

 A court date for Chicha has not been scheduled yet, according to jail records.