LEESBURG, Fla.—A search warrant earlier this week took multiple guns and trafficking amounts of drugs off the street and landed a Leesburg man in jail whose criminal history dates back 26 years, according to an arrest affidavit.
Around 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Lake County Sherriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit (SIU,) LCSO SWAT, Homeland Security agents and detectives with Clermont, Eustis, Leesburg and Mount Dora police departments executed a search warrant at 2519 Myer Ave., Leesburg and found Walter Canady, 43, sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in the driveway and 12 other people at the home.
Upon searching the home, detectives found a bedroom without a doorknob and locked with a deadbolt. After removing the deadbolt, LCSO found a cache of drugs, including about a pound of cocaine, 6 ounces of methamphetamine, 15 grams of fentanyl, 40 grams of MDMA, a small amount of marijuana, paraphernalia and seven firearms. When Canady was searched, deputies found numerous keys in his pocket, one that opened the deadbolt, the affidavit states.
Canady denied ever being in the home and said he had only been on the front screened patio, but detectives say that was a lie, as he was spotted exiting the home about five minutes before LCSO executed the search warrant.
Canady was arrested for armed trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA; possession paraphernalia; possession of ammunition by a convicted felon and five counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He is being held in the Lake County Jail on no bond.
Two other people were arrested at home in addition to Canady; Gabriella Partridge, 32, was arrested on a warrant for violation of probation, Rosa L. Taylor, 55, was arrested for a Sumter County warrant for grand theft and Taylor G. Estrill, 27, was issued a summons to appear in court for possession of drug paraphernalia.
