Photo: John Scott Bavaro
Santa Barbara County – Straddling the U.S. 101 freeway, the city calling itself the home of “the world’s safest beach,” Carpinteria is also becoming known as “the marijuana capital of America,” hosting tens of thousands of greenhouse-covered cannabis plants in facilities once reserved for the tulips of a prior generation of growers.
Along with that unintended notoriety, Carpinteria is also known as a well-traveled drug route for those importing a wide variety of controlled substances from Los Angeles and Ventura counties. One of those motoring northbound at the noon hour on February 18th with an illicit cargo was 53-year-old Buellton resident John Scott Bavaro.
As Bavaro drove through Carpinteria just after noon, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department patrol deputies observed Bavaro commit a motor vehicle violation. According to SBSD Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, it was at that point that deputies conducted “a routine traffic stop” of Bavaro’s Chevrolet Equinox.
Once the deputies made contact with Bavaro, it didn’t take them long to discover “nearly a pound of methamphetamine concealed in the vehicle’s dashboard,” along with a replica pistol and prescription medications that “did not belong to him.” At that point, Bavaro was taken into custody and a search warrant for his Buellton residence was obtained.
While Bavaro was being transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, the search of his residence unearthed “evidence of drug sales, an additional seven grams of methamphetamine, and four grams of psilocybin mushrooms.”
Bavaro was subsequently charged with possession of a controlled substance for sales, carrying a concealed dirk or dagger, transportation of a controlled substance for sales, commission of a felony after release on bail, transportation of methamphetamine for sales, and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, with his bail set at $50,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
