Duval County Man Convicted of Drug Trafficking and Resisting Arrest

Duval County Man Convicted of Drug Trafficking and Resisting Arrest

Florida State Attorney Melissa Nelson has announced that a Duval County jury found Raymond Boutros guilty of Trafficking in Substituted Cathinone and Resisting an Officer Without Violence. With this verdict, Boutros faces up to 30 years in Florida State Prison. The Honorable Tatiana Salvador will sentence Boutros at a later date.

On September 18, 2023, officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about a dispute in a parking lot on San Diego Street. Boutros disclosed to the officers that he had found heroin on the ground, which the officers then confiscated and placed into evidence. While officers were still on the scene, Boutros repeatedly rode by on his bike, waiting for the officers to leave. An officer, suspecting Boutros might be waiting to retrieve more drugs, stayed nearby to continue his patrol. Boutros soon returned to the scene, searched the fence line with a flashlight, retrieved something from the ground, and rode off on his bicycle.

An officer stopped him for traffic violations and noticed Boutros holding a pill bottle and a cigar package. When ordered to stop, Boutros fled on his bike. After a chase, the officer detained him. Officers discovered that Boutros had hidden narcotics inside the cigar package and pill bottle. The narcotics in the cigar package weighed 16.88 grams and were analyzed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which identified them as substituted cathinones, commonly known as “bath salts.”

The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Trinity A. Turinetti and Christina Roldan.

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.