ARRESTED IN TAMPA, FLORIDA: DION BARNES OF ESTATE CAMPO RICO, ST. CROIX
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TAMPA — SWAT deputies here said they searched a St. Croix man’s home and found more than 40 pounds of marijuana, LSD and suspected psychedelic mushrooms in a suitcase, and three handguns.
One of the three handguns found in a laundry room was hidden in a child’s toy car, they said.
Dion Barnes, 26, of Campo Rico, was arrested Tuesday and faces felony charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, marijuana and LSD trafficking, possessing a controlled substance and violation of state probation, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office reported.
He remained at the Naples Jail Center on Wednesday evening, held without bail.
SWAT deputies served a search warrant at Barnes’ home at 8:19 a.m. Tuesday. Barnes “voluntarily returned” to the house during the search, the report states.
Deputies found more than 40 pounds of marijuana in the garage and laundry room and 5.5 grams of LSD, additional marijuana and suspected psychedelic mushrooms in a travel suitcase in the garage, according to the report.
They also found two large suitcases containing 18 one-pound bags of marijuana on top of the washer and dryer in the laundry room, and 782.9 grams of marijuana wax in a freezer in the garage, deputies said.
The SWAT team found three handguns with ammunition “in various areas in the garage, one hidden in a child’s toy car,” the report states.
Barnes first told deputies he didn’t live at the home, “then changed his story and admitted he does live” there, according to the report.
He told deputies that only he keeps items in the garage and that his wife “has no claim of ownership to anything in the garage and has no knowledge of any of his dealings,” the report states.
Barnes’ wife told deputies that she didn’t know about the marijuana, that all the property in the garage was his, and that she “never inspected the two suitcases” on the washer and dryer, according to the report.
A confidential informant revealed to deputies that Barnes would conduct narcotics transactions using a phone number with a Virgin Islands area code.
When SWAT deputies called the phone number Tuesday, a phone they found in a nightstand next to Barnes’ wallet and mail rang, the report states.
Some of the marijuana found at the home “was packaged in similar packaging materials that were located while obtaining probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant,” according to the report.
“During which time, Dion was observed taking discarded materials to the curb for pickup,” deputies wrote.
Over a span of 17 days, deputies observed 10 different occasions during which vehicles approached Barnes’ home and engaged “in a pattern of behavior consistent with the purchase of narcotics,” the report states.
On several of those occasions, deputies watched as Barnes conducted the transactions “from within the vicinity of the garage,” according to the report.