Man on drug offender probation arrested on drug trafficking charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Charles Dre’on Taylor, Jr., 28, was arrested early this morning on seven drug felonies and a misdemeanor after trafficking quantities of drugs were reportedly found in his backpack after a traffic stop.

A Gainesville Police Department officer pulled over a car in the 900 block of SE 2nd Avenue at about 12:36 a.m. last night for running a stop sign. The officer wrote that he had previously seen the car parked at the Circle K at 20 NE Waldo Road, where the front seat passenger got out and made contact with several people in the parking lot.

After the traffic stop, the driver reportedly gave consent to search the vehicle, and officers found a backpack on the rear seat behind the driver. A search of the backpack reportedly produced approximately 133 grams of MDPV (over ten times the trafficking amount), 70 grams of marijuana, 42 grams of methamphetamine, 4.8 grams of crack cocaine, 15.2 grams of powdered cocaine, a digital scale, a box of sandwich bags, and a bag of about 100 clear plastic baggies.

Post Miranda, Taylor reportedly denied any knowledge of the drugs, but the officer also reported that he “intentionally lied about every single question… before he stated he was done talking.”

The officer’s investigation found that Taylor had the backpack in his lap at the time of the traffic stop and threw it into the back seat. The officer also reportedly found a loose white rock between Taylor’s seat and the passenger side door, and he concluded that it would have been difficult or impossible for the other occupants of the car to place the rock there.

A search incident to arrest reportedly produced over $1,000 in cash of various denominations, which is consistent with narcotics sales.

Taylor has been charged with two counts of possession of trafficking quantities of amphetamines, possession of amphetamines within 1,000 feet of a convenience store, possession of trafficking quantities of phenethylamines, two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Taylor has five felony convictions and three misdemeanor convictions, all on drug charges. He was arrested in September 2022 after breaking into an apartment, where he held the occupant against her will. She broke free when officers forced entry to the apartment, and Taylor finally surrendered after a K-9 announcement was made. Taylor’s backpack contained 111 grams of marijuana and 12.6 grams of crack cocaine, along with baggies and a scale. In January, Taylor entered a plea of nolo contendere to two drug charges, trespassing, and property damage, and four other charges were dropped. The plea deal states that the maximum penalty for the charges is 11 years in state prison, but Taylor was sentenced to 43 days in jail (with credit for 43 days served) and two years of drug offender probation. Under the terms of the probation, he is not permitted to possess any drugs or break the law.

Bail information is unavailable on weekends.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 

  • When will they learn that letting these low life’s out with little or no bail does nothing for them they have proven time and time again they belong in jail

  • Mr. District Attorney, this man is laughing at you. He’s going to go right on selling this poison to other people’s kids until you do something.

    • Don’t worry Judge Green will help him out with a notoriously low bail as usual.

  • It’s been mentioned before that you can’t fix something that can’t be fixed; whether it’s a hammer or a wine glass. Same can be said about people, if a person doesn’t want to be fixed, they can’t be and aren’t going to be receptive to being told they’re wrong. He obviously has no intent of being fixed, much less changing his ways.

    Maybe it’s the judicial system that should implement real penalties for repeat offenders.

  • 43 days versus 11 years? Tell us again why the SA tolerated this plea. Or why a sane judge would accept it.

  • Obviously our criminal joke system as currently run, is NOT being taken seriously.
    Only scummy lawyers, judges and crooks benefit…. wake up, voters 👹🤡🍦🍦🍦D

  • Let me see if I understand this correctly: Just at 1 year ago, he broke into an apartment, held a woman hostage, forced law enforcement to force entry with a K9 and was found with massive amounts of drugs? He was looking at 11 years in prison but plead no contest to 2 drug charges, trespassing and property damage and gets time served? Uhh.

    He didn’t kidnap anyone this time, just ran some stop signs. Will probably get community service. 🙄

    • I happen to know that young fella from helping out around the community locally, He isn’t just something under our shoes guys he’s human like the rest .

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