A Lady Lake man was arrested after being stopped at a gas station with a loaded firearm and narcotic residue in his vehicle.
An officer stopped a four-door Chevrolet with blue headlights at the BP gas station, located at 1300 N 14th St., around 12:55 a.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department. He noticed the smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle and asked for consent to search it, but the driver, 30-year-old Michael Valery Miles, refused.
A K-9 unit subsequently responded to the scene and positively alerted to the odor of narcotics, meaning the vehicle was searched anyway. Officers then found a camouflage firearm holster on the driver’s side floorboard. Directly underneath the driver’s seat, they discovered a black Smith & Wesson firearm with one round in the chamber and 13 in the magazine, the report said.
There was also a black box with magnetic attachments and methamphetamine residue in the passenger seat. That style of box was often used to conceal and transport illegal substances on the outside of vehicles to avoid detection from law enforcement, the report said…