A routine Jackson County Sheriff’s Office patrol in White City, Christmas evening, Sunday, December 25th, discovered a driver passed out behind the wheel just before 10:00pm.
While conducting a routine patrol on Christmas around 9:50 p.m., a Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy observed a suspicious vehicle parked at a business on Antioch Road.
The car arouse suspicion by being parked diagonally across multiple parking spaces with the engine running in front of the closed business.
The White City deputy approached the vehicle and observed the driver asleep at the wheel, with fentanyl on his lap. The deputy announced himself as being from the Sheriff’s Office and the subject, identified as 42 year old, Tomas William Contento, did not wake up. The deputy observed what appeared to be a large amount of narcotics in plain sight on Contento’s lap, and called for backup.
Due to Contento’s potential for being under the influence and his flight risk by being in possession of a felony amount of narcotics, the deputy placed a spike strip in front of his tire and waited for backup.
Additional deputies arrived minutes later, woke up Contento, and took him into custody without incident and deputies seized 88 grams of multi-colored powdered fentanyl in multiple baggies, along with $1027 cash at scene.
A search warrant was obtained for the vehicle which uncovered five additional grams of fentanyl and a digital scale totaling 93 grams of multi-colored powdered fentanyl. Preliminary tests confirmed the presence of fentanyl in the powdered substances seized and samples were sent to a crime lab for further testing.
Contento did not require medical attention. Jackson County Animal Control took possession of Contento’s dogs. The case is under further investigation and will be prosecuted by the Jackson County District Attorney’s office.
