FLORIDA — Wildlife officials invited by a couple to search their freezer for illegal venison found a stash of marijuana instead.
Israel A. Cervantes and Andrea D. Coleman gave Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers permission to search their freezer Saturday to prove they were not stashing deer meat. They had just been cited on a charge of shooting a deer from their car a few hours earlier.
The officials found no venison but did come across about 1 pound of marijuana in two plastic bags.
"I couldn’t even guess how much it would have been worth,” said Danton Jones, a commission officer. “But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for their own consumption."
Jones was patrolling the Ocala National Forest early Saturday when he heard two shots. He found the couple, along with a 12-gauge shotgun and some beer, in a car. After daylight, another officer found a dead deer in the area, and he and Jones drove to De Leon Springs to cite the couple, Jones said.
Cervantes and Coleman were charged with felony possession of marijuana and taking a deer at night, a misdemeanor. Cervantes, 26, also faces charges of discharging a firearm on a highway and possession of an open container, a commission report showed.
They were being held in the Volusia County Jail on $1,000 bail each. Jail officials had no information on their legal representation.
De Leon Springs is about 20 miles inland of Daytona Beach.
