Charter boat captain sentenced for dealing cocaine and heroin

A judge sentenced a Key Largo charter boat captain to two years in state prison Tuesday for several cocaine and heroin dealing charges, mostly stemming from an undercover sting in which he sold drugs to an undercover informant working for the police at an Upper Keys motel in September.

Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia also sentenced Kristian Demblans, 35, to more than a year in county jail for several misdemeanors he pleaded guilty to on Tuesday. Demblans made a deal with State Attorney’s Office prosecutors to plead guilty to seven drug counts and one count of disorderly conduct in exchange for the state consolidating three felony drug cases against him. He’ll serve the county jail time concurrently with his state prison time.

Asked by Garcia if he wanted to say anything following his sentencing, Demblans responded: “I’d like to thank the state and apologize to my family.”

The bulk of the charges filed came from the Sept. 15 sting operation conducted by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Attorney’s Office. According to the arrest affidavit, Demblans and Jessica Brown, 26, arranged the sale of 3.4 grams of heroin for $900 and 4.4 grams of cocaine for $390 to the informant.

Brown’s case is still pending.

After the informant left the Sunset Cove Resort at mile marker 99, detectives and agents carried out a search warrant and found more than 32 grams of cocaine, dozens of Alprazolam pills and assorted drug paraphernalia.

At the time of his arrest, Demblans had a warrant out on him for failure to appear for felony drug charges filed in July. In that case, deputies pulled him over on his motorcycle as he was driving to his Lake View Drive home off mile marker 100, which was under surveillance by narcotics detectives. According to the arrest report, deputies found on Demblans crack cocaine, a small amount of heroin, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. As part of Tuesday’s plea deal, Demblans agreed to plead guilty to cocaine possession, possession of Alprazolam (sold as Xanax), misdemeanor marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Demblans and his twin brother Adrian are well-known to Keys law enforcement. Adrian Demblans is in the Key West jail awaiting trial for accessory after the fact of a capital felony.

He is accused of driving Jeremy Macauley to and from a Tavernier home where police say Macauley shot dead Carlos Ortiz and Tara Rosado in October 2015. The motive of the slayings, prosecutors say, was to silence Ortiz, who demanded money in exchange for not telling police about Macauley’s involvement with the sale of more than a dozen kilograms of cocaine police say he brought in from offshore of Islamorada while working as a charter boat mate in the summer of 2015.

A grand jury indicted Macauley on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges in March 2016. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 5:18 AM with the headline "Charter boat captain sentenced for dealing cocaine and heroin."