A Miami man was stopped in the Keys, and was trafficking drugs in his pants, police say

A Miami man was jailed Tuesday night after deputies said he had more than 2 ounces of drugs in his pants during a traffic stop in the Middle Keys.

Travis Bernard Holton, 44, was arrested on a felony charge of trafficking in amphetamines.

Deputy Christopher VanHoose stopped Holton, who was driving a Ford Fusion, at 9:33 p.m. on U.S. 1 at mile marker 59 on Grassy Key.

Holton’s license plate light wasn’t on, said Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Adam Linhardt.

The sheriff’s office K-9, who is named Coral, alerted deputies there were drugs in the car, Linhardt said.

“Holton stated he had no illegal contraband in the car and consented to a vehicle search as well as a search of himself,” Linhardt said.

But when Holton was asked to widen his stance so deputies could search him, two plastic bags fell from his pants to the asphalt, Linhardt said.

The bags contained a crystal-like substance that field-tested positive for amphetamines with a total weight of 58.5 grams, police said.

Holton said the bags held “two ounces of molly,” police reported.

Holton was taken to jail. He remained at the Plantation Key jail without bond on Wednesday afternoon.

This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 3:38 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.