A registered sex offender is facing multiple charges after deputies from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) found him carrying several baggies containing drugs when they stopped him for riding a bicycle at night without displaying any lights on it.
HCSO Public Relations Manager Denise Moloney said that shortly after 9 p.m. on Jan. 23, deputies conducting a proactive patrol near Damac Estates in Brooksville spotted a man riding a bicycle with no lights on it.
When they conducted a traffic stop at Canal Drive and Carole Avenue, they gave the driver, later identified as Joseph Revell, age 44, a verbal warning for the equipment violation.
When they asked if they could search him, Revel allegedly told them that he had “a little bit of weed” on his person.
He subsequently retrieved a baggie containing a leafy substance and another one containing a white crystal-like substance and a cut straw. The green leafy substance field tested positive for the presence of THC, and the white crystal-like substance and the straw field tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine.
A further search of Revel revealed that he was also carrying a small headphones case in his waistband. Inside, deputies found a cut straw that contained a crystal-like residue, a clear baggy containing a white powder-like substance, and a pill later determined to be Oxycodone.
The straw and the white powder-like substance tested positive for the presence of 5.8 grams of fentanyl, more than the trafficking amount for that drug of 4 grams.
Revell was arrested and booked into the Hernando County Detention Center on charges of trafficking fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine, possession of the controlled substance oxycodone, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana.
Because he was a registered sex offender, Revell is being held without bond.
He told deputies that he was transporting the drugs “for a friend,” Moloney said.
