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California woman arrested at Gainesville Airport with 62 lbs of marijuana

Mandy Carlson

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

According to an arrest report from the Gainesville Police Department (GPD), Mandy Lee Carlson, 30, of Elk Grove, CA, was arrested at 8:29 a.m. on May 19 at the Gainesville Regional Airport and was charged with “Possess/Use Drug Paraphernalia” and “Trafficking in cannabis.”

On May 18, 2021, GPD received information from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office Airport Bureau, stating that Carlson had boarded an American Airlines flight in Sacramento with approximately 24 individual packages of marijuana, each weighing approximately 1 pound. A search of a law enforcement database found no ties to Gainesville, FL, or criminal history for Carlson.

GPD later learned that Carlson had not boarded her connecting flight in Dallas because of weather concerns, but the luggage had continued to the final destination of Gainesville Regional Airport. The luggage arrived in Gainesville and was secured inside an American Airlines office.

Carlson’s rescheduled flight arrived at the Gainesville airport at about 8:30 a.m. on May 19, where GPD detectives were waiting. They watched her retrieve her luggage from the American Airlines office and then detained her. They read her Miranda rights, and she reportedly refused to speak with them about the contents of the luggage. The detective wrote that the luggage “had several indicators consistent with shipping of illegal narcotics based on my training and experience. The DEFENDANT was traveling from a source city, California, which is a known source city for illegal narcotics (specifically cannabis) being shipped via parcel throughout the United States.”

At about 9:30 a.m., a certified illegal narcotics detection K-9, Maverick, arrived. Maverick conducted a sniff search and positively alerted to the presence of illegal narcotics in the luggage.

GPD was then granted a search warrant, and a search found approximately 62 pounds of cannabis (each piece of luggage contained 24 individual packages of marijuana, each weighing approximately 1 pound) and men’s t-shirts.

Carlson remains in the Alachua County Jail.

  • Not only are they bringing their ideas to Florida, now they’re bringing their drugs. What’s next, high taxes? Oh wait, we already have those here.

    Please send her liberal @rse back to the Golden State. Confiscate the drugs and pack the city commission in her suitcase in it’s place.

      • Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have referred to her as being liberal. She may have been one of the more conservative residents of California seeking to flee the oppression.

        Still, she should be sent back to the Golden State without the drugs and take the city commission where they will be appreciated by more people.

        • Wonder why the Sacramento County Sheriffs
          Office allowed her to board the plane and didn’t
          Arrest her there?

          • 1. They wanted a state with real leadership to do the job they’re incapable of doing.
            2. They have enough problems with the drugs on the street they couldn’t worry about one plane.
            3. They couldn’t identify the alleged perp because it only identified a person as “them.”
            4. Since Disneyland Anaheim hasn’t opened she was going to Disney World instead.

          • Probably to charge her with intrastate trafficking & make it Federal…you think they would have allowed her to pick up the suitcase
            And follow her and arrest her where she was bringing it to and catch the whole drug ring….

        • You know when I was a younger person I used to smoke weed and where did we get it? Florida , it comes from everywhere’s and it’s just a crime of opportunity. She saw profit and took a silly chance. She lost .

      • Keep your mask on , get a COVID shot, keep getting paid not to work, and go to your safe place….

      • Touched a nerve did we? Is that because it put a dent in your supply line or you don’t want to lose your Marxist leadership?

        Got to hate it when that happens. 🤡

  • Won’t be any fly in drug smuggling in Sprungs County.
    .
    They don’t have an airport.

    • True that!

      Won’t have to worry about those fake, “I’m going to cut my carbon emissions” democrats by flying in and out on their private jets either.

      Good for the environment, good for the county. Win, win.😁

  • She probably got them from one of the 3 illegal pot farm in contra costa county – Brentwood, knightsen or Byron . All pot farms run by 2 Asian women . The Brentwood farm shut down feds and local enforcements investigating.

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