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Nearly $1.5 Million Found With Suspect

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A staff report

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pasco County detectives found nearly $1.5 million cash in a truck driven by a New Port Richey man wanted on federal drug charges, the sheriff's office said Thursday.

Detectives stopped the 2001 Dodge at Bass Lake Drive and Ridge Road on Dec. 5 at the request of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. A search yielded the money and about 71 grams of marijuana.

The driver, Johnathan Mortimer, 46, was arrested on a federal warrant out of Baton Rouge, La., accusing him of illegal interstate travel and possession of cocaine, oxycodone and methamphetamine, the sheriff's office said.

A federal magistrate in Tampa ordered Mortimer be held without bail, records show. In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Thomas G. Wilson said Mortimer "has access to enormous sums of cash. The availability of such funds presents an unreasonable risk of flight."

Mortimer's wife, Kathryn, 45, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, trafficking in a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance, the sheriff's office said.

She was released Saturday from the Land O' Lakes Jail with bail set at $60,750, records show.

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