Key West police make a rare heroin arrest. Two locals were jailed
Two men were jailed Feb. 22 after police said they had more than 13 grams of heroin hidden inside the pickup they drove over the Cow Key Channel Bridge and into Key West.
One is a user with track marks on his arms while the other man “helps out” people in Key West who need heroin, according to the police report.
Chadwick Arthur Meister, 30, and Jason Albert Tiller, 48, both of Key West, were arrested on felony charges of drug trafficking and possessing drug paraphernalia to transport drugs.
On Tuesday evening, both remained at the Stock Island Detention Center. Meister’s bond is $60,000 while Tiller’s is $45,000.
The heroin was found inside a silver insulated beverage container that had been taped to an engine hose, Key West police said.
A metal spoon and two syringes were also inside the container, police said.
It was a “substantial amount” of heroin, with the total weighing 13.31 grams or nearly half an ounce, said police spokeswoman Alyson Crean.
In Florida, four grams equals drug trafficking.
Key West police stopped a Toyota Tacoma at 12:52 a.m. Saturday because Meister was speeding, according to the arrest reports. They were assisted by an agent with Homeland Security Investigations.
Police, who searched the pickup with a K9 dog, also said they also found two pouches hidden beneath the dashboard: one containing Narcan nasal spray, which can reverse an opioid overdose, and the other one holding a fragment of a blue pill police could not immediately identify.
Narcan, the brand name of naloxone, is available from a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription.
At first, Meister, listed as an electrician, told the police he had only had the Tacoma for two months and that he knew nothing about the heroin.
Then he agreed to show detectives the inside of his arms.
“Both of Meister’s arms appeared to have injection marks from using heroin intravenously,” wrote Key West Detective Jay Thomas Conaty.
Meister said he drives from Key West to Fort Lauderdale twice a week to buy heroin from someone he only identified as “Shorty,” according to the arrest reports.
But he said the heroin found in the engine compartment belonged to Tiller, who “helps out” people in Key West who need heroin, Conaty wrote.
Meister said he drove to Exit 9 of Florida’s Turnpike — Southwest 112th Avenue — parked the truck, and went to a Walgreens store while Tiller used the pickup to “run errands,” police said.
Meister told police he believed Tiller’s errands including buying heroin and he expected some in return for having driven him to the mainland.
“Meister said he and Tiller have driven to buy heroin before and split the heroin between them evenly,” Conaty wrote.
Tiller, listed as a carpenter, wouldn’t speak to police except to ask if he could “get out of” the charges by setting up an undercover drug deal between him and men from Miami, police said.
Tiller said he could buy an ounce of heroin, plus some crystal methamphetamine and cocaine, police reported.
“I told Tiller I could not make promises like that,” Conaty wrote.
