More than 50 arrested before and during music festival; 100 pounds of drugs seized

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — More than 50 people were arrested by officials in St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties as part of several days of law enforcement initiatives before and during the recent Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival.

The majority of arrests appeared to have occurred in Okeechobee County, where the four-day festival was held.

Okeechobee County sheriff’s officials Friday reported 19 festival workers were arrested between Feb. 26 and 28. Twenty-five people attending the event also were arrested on drug-related and other charges, according to the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office.

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Officials placed amnesty boxes where people could put narcotics before being searched by dogs. A total of 105 pounds of drugs was confiscated.

Michele Bell, Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office public information officer, said officials conducted a traffic enforcement operation on the main roadway leading to the festival, where the 19 were arrested. It was the first year for the initiative.

“They were coming in not only to work the festival but to sell their drugs," Bell said.

In St. Lucie County, Florida Highway Patrol officials seized 8 pounds of marijuana, about a pound of mushrooms and made 178 traffic stops during an operation focusing on Okeechobee Road in western St. Lucie County, according to the FHP.

FHP officials also searched 94 vehicles and arrested people on a total of 101 felony and misdemeanor drug-related charges during their Feb. 27 to March 3 initiative.

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“As you see (by) the numbers of arrests and the amount of narcotics taken away from the roadways, we save lives,” said Lt. Al Feola, FHP spokesman. “It’s a big amount, and every time you can get these narcotics out of the streets, we call it a successful operation.”

Feola did not know the total number of people arrested, but FHP arrest affidavits showed at least a dozen people arrested. St. Lucie County sheriff’s officials also arrested at least two people.

Feola said the initiative lasted each day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and that 18 troopers from three troops participated.

He said they chose Okeechobee Road in western St. Lucie County because it coincided with the music festival and is a main roadway.

“We choose a road based on the amount of travel, the amount of crashes, the amount of people that travel,” he said. “That’s a busy state road for us in the western St. Lucie area.”

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Okeechobee Road leads from Florida's Turnpike and Interstate 95 west toward the Okeechobee County festival.

In addition to the 101 felony and misdemeanor drug-related charges, FHP officials leveled 13 additional charges not related to drugs and issued dozens of citations.

FHP officials also seized about one-third pound of “edible marijuana” and lesser amounts of LSD, Ecstasy, cocaine, hash oil and other drugs.

The operation’s mission statement is: “This detail will be a comprehensive initiative to aggressively enforce the laws against the transportation of stolen cargo and stolen vehicles, the transportation of illegal contraband, and the transportation of fugitives from justice.”

Last year, 99 people were arrested in St. Lucie County on drug-related charges as part of a "highway interdiction operation" planned around the festival.

LAST YEAR'S STORY: 99 arrested in operation planned around Okeechobee Music Festival | Video, Photos