The Boost Mobile store, located at 2864 Blanding Blvd. in Middleburg, where cops say employees sold heroin and methamphetamines during normal business owners.
Clay County Sheriff’s Office
Prepaid cellphones can be a drug dealer’s best friend. But employees selling drugs from a phone store?
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested more than a dozen people on narcotics charges Wednesday after an investigation discovered workers were selling drugs from a Boost Mobile store, the agency said. Numerous drugs were seized as well.
According to investigators, the Middleburg store operated as a distribution center for heroin and methamphetamine. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office called this operation “bold,” comparing it to a packed store on Black Friday.
“Before the store would open, people would congregate outside, they would wait in line,” said sheriff’s Lt. Dominic Paniccia. “ If the store was a minute over the normal operating time, they would knock on front doors and back doors.”
While cash was the primary form of payment, deputies said the employees also accepted electronics and jewelry in exchange for the narcotics.
The sheriff’s office charged 14 people but wouldn’t say how many were employees. According to Paniccia, one employee said they had never even sold any “phone items.”
As of Thursday, authorities didn’t believe the store’s owner or managers had any knowledge of the illegal activity.
A spokesman for Sprint, Boost Mobile’s parent company, said the owners are working with law enforcement as they continue their investigation.
C. Isaiah Smalls II is a reporter covering breaking and trending news for the Miami Herald. Previously, he worked for ESPN’s The Undefeated as part of their inaugural class of Rhoden Fellows. He is a graduate of both Columbia University and Morehouse College.