A tattted-up Florida man tried to assure cops that “there’s nothing wrong with drugs” after they discovered several bags of meth hidden in his underpants during a strip search last week.
Thomas Carpenter, 41, was originally pulled over by deputies for a suspected traffic violation on March 18, but the officers soon discovered evidence of drug use inside his car — with two children and an unidentified woman also inside, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.
Authorities found a bag full of drug paraphernalia, marijuana and possible methamphetamine in the car, the sheriff’s office said.
While officers tried to talk to Carpenter, he struggled to stay awake and apparently kept fading in and out of consciousness.
His female passenger told the deputies that they both had smoked marijuana in the car shortly before they were pulled over. Neither of the adults had medical marijuana cards on them at the time, cops said.
The woman was let go, but deputies arrested Carpenter and booked him in Putnam County Jail. He appeared solemn in his mugshot, which shows his heavily tattooed face.
While performing a physical search at the station, deputies found 11 small, tied sandwich bags filled with a crystal-like substance stuffed into the front of his underwear, according to the sheriff’s office.
The substance tested positive as methamphetamine and weighed about 322.1 grams.
Carpenter tried to assure the deputies that “there’s nothing wrong with drugs” while he was at the station.
Despite his pitch, he was charged with amphetamine trafficking or methamphetamine 14 grams or over, possession of marijuana with intent to sell or deliver, two counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, smuggling contraband into a county detention facility and three counts of drug paraphernalia.
However, Carpenter’s criminal career didn’t begin with the alleged drug drawers.
He was released from the state prison system in December 2024 after serving a three-year sentence for a slew of charges, including battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and fleeing a law enforcement officer.
Deputies sent a copy of last week’s arrest report over to the Department of Children and Families since there were two children in the car at the time of his arrest.
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