Gainesville Police arrested a man and woman who’d been running a marijuana operation out of a rented apartment in the Jefferson 2nd Avenue complex.
Joseph Villanueva, 19, was arrested by police as he was entering the apartment on Thursday. Police had a warrant to search the residence, as well as a black suitcase Villanueva was carrying at the time, according to the police report.
Police found three and a half pounds of marijuana inside the suitcase and an additional three and a half pounds inside the apartment. The only other items inside were a vacuum sealer, scales and a large safe for storing marijuana, the report stated.
Ariana Hazel, 20, is the sole lessee of the apartment and admitted post-Miranda that the apartment was rented for the sole purpose of keeping and distributing the drugs, the report stated.
Both are charged with possession with the intent to sell cannabis within 1,000 feet of a church, a felony, and maintaining a drug dwelling.
