Drug Bust Proves Fruitful For Food Bank

TAMPA - In a twist on making lemonade when life supplies lemons, police on Friday gave a local food bank a truckload of citrus and other produce seized during a drug bust.

Shortly after 2 p.m., officers backed a tractor-trailer from Brownsville, Texas, into a distribution warehouse for America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay on East Adamo Drive.

Inside the 53-foot trailer were cardboard boxes of lemons and limes, as well as plastic crates of habaneros, bell peppers, tomatillos and rutabagas.

"This is a real blessing today," said Marc Sutherland, resource development director for the food bank, which distributes food to about 300 organizations, including Metropolitan Ministries and the Salvation Army.

"We're always in dire need of fresh produce and meat," Sutherland said. "We can find a home for just about everything."

The produce is the oddest seizure narcotics detectives can remember.

An investigation led detectives to Interstate 75 about 5:45 p.m. Thursday. According to arrest affidavits, police discovered 34 kilograms, or about 74 pounds, of cocaine stashed in the truck.

Police charged the truck's owner, Daniel Ramirez, 26, of Brownsville, and the driver, Hector Fernandez, 52, of San Benito, Texas, with felony cocaine trafficking and felony conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Both men were held without bail at the Orient Road Jail on Friday.

The trailer of produce would have been destroyed because it had no evidentiary value, but that seemed like a waste, police said.

They spoke to the Florida Department of Agriculture, persuaded Ramirez to turn over the cargo and contacted the food bank.

"The officers realized we had a short window of time before everything went bad," said Cpl. Jared Douds, a police spokesman. "It was a no-brainer what the right thing to do was."

The semi had engine trouble on its trip from the police impound lot to the food bank, but the food arrived in good shape.

Officers checked through each box and crate to ensure there were no drugs hidden among the produce.

"If something good can come out of this enterprise, that's as good as it's gonna get," narcotics Capt. Hugh Miller said.