PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Four men are accused of running an active enterprise of hard drug sales and manufacturing that was taking place in a storage unit in a commercial location, according to Pinellas Park Police Department.

  • 4 charged with multiple drug trafficking-related charges
  • 200.3 grams of cocaine, 51.7 grams of crack, 52.3 grams of meth seized

"They were absolutely manufacturing crack cocaine in that location," said Capt. Adam Geissenberger. "It became, if you will, a store front. Customers knew where to find them."

The SWAT team busted into that Kaz Depot storage unit on Tuesday at 7 a.m., which is located at 6741 102nd Avenue N., in Pinellas Park.

Antonio Towns, 27, Forest Washington, 31, Kiernan Searcy, 36 and Ricky Robinson, 36, were all arrested on multiple drug trafficking-related charges.

"It's our understanding there was a person, who we did not arrest, who was living there," said Geissenberger. "When we made entry, one of the subjects did climb up into a crawl space and concealed himself. When we did confront and locate that subject we found him armed with a firearm."

Police said Towns was that subject they found with a gun and he is facing armed trafficking charges, along with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Detectives said they also found:

  • 200.3 grams of cocaine
  • 51.7 grams of crack
  • 52.3 grams of meth
  • 13.5 grams of ecstasy
  • 68.4 grams of fentanyl

All four defendants are facing a mandatory minimum of three years in prison for allegedly having more than 200 grams of cocaine.

"Close to 700 doses of fentanyl," Geissenberger said. "For the lack of a better word, we're excited that we got the fentanyl off the street. Fentanyl is killing people left and right. You don't know how it's cut. You don't know how it's mixed."

According to an arrest affidavit, Washington was the man who rented the storage unit and he is facing an additional charge of rental or possession for trafficking or manufacturing drugs.

The owner of Kaz Depot, Kaz Bielawski, 73, said Washington rented the unit at the beginning of the year and he had no idea it was being used to deal drugs.

"Just found out about it," he said. "No clue about dealing drugs. No complaints from other tenants."

Pinellas Park Police Department officials said they got a tip about heavy traffic coming and going from that storage unit and used an undercover officer to purchase the drugs.

All four defendants are being held in the Pinellas Jail on at least $265,000 bonds.