DOCUMENT: Crime

Odd Squad Car Nosh Caught On Police Cam

Cops: Man ate bag of drugs "pulled from his butt"

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Squad Car Nosh

MARCH 26--For Jahrea Raheem Wallace, a desperate time allegedly called for a desperate measure.

The 25-year-old Floridian--seated in the rear of a police cruiser after being arrested following a 2:40 AM traffic stop--sought to dispose of some narcotics on his person, cops reported.

Well, actually, in his person.

According to an arrest affidavit, a vehicle cam captured Wallace last month “eating a bag of drugs he pulled from his butt.” Pictured at right, Wallace then “proceeds to eat the baggy with the drugs.”

When confronted by sheriff’s deputies, Wallace denied consuming the baggy, and then spit it out in front of a cop. The officer subsequently “swabbed the defendant’s mouth which tested positive for cocaine,” the affidavit states. “The baggy is being sent to the lab for testing.”

Charged with cocaine possession, providing a false name to cops, and tampering with physical evidence, Wallace was booked into the Pinellas County lockup. The St. Petersburg resident, whose employer is listed as Chipotle in court records, was also hit with a probation violation charge in connection with a 2019 felony grand theft conviction.

Scheduled for arraignment on March 30, the jailed Wallace will now be facing one less criminal count, records show. Prosecutors are not pursuing the cocaine possession charge, a declination decision that is not explained in recent court filings.  

According to Wallace’s rap sheet, his priors include convictions for battery, marijuana possession, probation violation, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of a controlled substance. (1 page)