FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A custodian at a South Florida alternative education school is accused of selling drugs on campus, authorities said.
Gary Alexander Henderson, 19, of Port St. Lucie, was arrested on Thursday and charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, according to St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office online booking records.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said Henderson worked as a custodian at Dale Cassens Education Complex in Fort Pierce, WPEC-TV reported. The facility is described as a K-12 alternative education site in Fort Pierce, according to the television station.
“School Resource Deputies received information on Thursday, which suggested that Henderson may have been selling drugs on the school campus,” Mascara said in a statement obtained by WPEC and WPTV. “After questioning Henderson, deputies found MDMA, LSD and Xanax in his possession.”
According to an online arrest affidavit, the school’s principal, Jerry Earley, contacted authorities on Monday after he observed some “suspicious activity.”
After watching a video of a student handing Henderson, the principal asked a sheriff’s deputy to search the janitor, the affidavit stated.
A search did not yield any results but school officials asked the deputy to escort Henderson off the premises. The deputy escorted Henderson to the school’s maintenance room where he could retrieve his belongings and found the man’s wallet with “a clear big sticking out” of it.
A search revealed that the bag contained white powder, and that inside the bag was paper “that rips into four pieces,” the affidavit stated. The wallet contained a rolled-up paper towel allegedly containing half of a Xanax pill, the deputy wrote.
The pill later tested positive for Xanax and the paper tested positive for LSD, the affidavit stated. The white powder found in the bag tested positive for MDNA, commonly known as Molly, according to the sheriff’s office.
Henderson was arrested and booked at the St. Lucie County Jail. He was released on Friday after posting $9,000 bail, online records show.
The sheriff’s office said that an investigation is ongoing.