DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Months after a woman fatally overdosed in Volusia County, the sheriff’s office said they were able to get the evidence to arrest the man who sold her the fentanyl.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood said they arrested Jerod Bennett Tuesday morning at his home on Aberdeen Street in Daytona Beach.
“He admitted to selling fentanyl saying it was the only thing he could do to make a living,” said the sheriff.
Deputies raided the home after finding messages from Bennett to the woman’s phone about drug deals back in January after she died and building the surveillance evidence over the last three months to charge him.
The sheriff said in this case, there has been a lot of time between the death and arrest, so they are not sure yet if they’ll be able to charge Bennett with murder on top of the dealing and drug charges he’s facing.
However, Chitwood said in the six months now since putting together a joint Overdose Homicide Task Force, they have nine other cases where they have recommended murder charges against dealers.
Chitwood said they found Bennett was dealing straight fentanyl but oftentimes they’re finding people buy fentanyl from dealers like him and resell it in other forms.
Those other drug forms have led to deaths, too.
“Last year we seized two or three pill presses. That’s straight fentanyl to look like Adderall,” he said.
The sheriff said arrests like Bennett’s, even without murder charges, are crucial for saving lives.
“Law enforcement has to be relentless in pursuing the dealers,” he said, “We have one Volusia County student a week is being taken out of school by e-vac and taken to the hospital for a vape incident and we know that the vapes are THC oil, and in those vapes are traces of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine.”
Despite the growth in ways people are overdosing, the sheriff said they are seeing some good trends.
He said Volusia County overdose deaths are down by 17% so far this year compared to this time last year. He credited a lot of the change to recovery efforts, education and the intensity of the charges against dealers they’re now able to use.
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