TAVARES, Florida— A man arrested many times for multiple felonies but seldom convicted in past cases, was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 15 years in prison stemming from a 2023 case, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.
Emmanuel Cazeau, now 41, of Eustis, was pulled over in June 2023 by Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies for a minor traffic offense as he pulled out of Circle K, at the corner of County Road 44 and County Road 473 in unincorporated Leesburg, according to an arrest affidavit.
Deputies asked for consent to search Cazeau’s vehicle, which he denied, and K9 Jim and his handler performed an open-air sniff on the vehicle. K9 Jim alerted to the odor of narcotics and Cazeau and his passenger were removed from the vehicle. Deputies searched the vehicle and found a small bag of a purple substance weighing 13 grams that field-tested positive for the deadly drug fentanyl, the affidavit states. Cazeau was taken into custody and arrested for trafficking in fentanyl.
After a two-day trial earlier this month, Cazeau was convicted of trafficking in fentanyl and heroin and possession of methamphetamine by a Lake County jury, and sentence to 15 years in prison by Circuit Judge James Baxley on Monday.
According to Lake County Sheriff’s Office online booking records, prior to this case, Cazeau had been arrested in Lake County seven times since 2019 for multiple offenses including drug trafficking and felony battery; the charges were dropped in each case, according to Lake County Clerk of Court online records.
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