Photo: Daniel Gonzalez
February 10, 2021 – Ventura County
With the current retail street value of methamphetamine currently hovering above $1,000 per ounce, one has to wonder why anyone holding nearly a half pound of the controlled substance would be living in a dry riverbed.
Those questions remain unanswered in the case of 61-year-old Daniel Gonzalez, a known Santa Paula area transient who was arrested on the afternoon of February 6th following what Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Daniel Blanck described as a year-long investigation into Gonzalez’s history of “trespassing.”
It was just after 2:00 p.m. on the 6th when VCSD deputies were stumbling through the Santa Clara River watershed “conducting a patrol” and they came across Gonzalez. Immediately suspecting him of trespassing, they made contact with Gonzalez and quickly “determined that he was under the influence of a controlled substance.”
A search of Gonzalez’s personal property revealed that he was in possession of “246 grams (8.66 ounces) of methamphetamine” with a current street value of more than $9,000. Holding such an amount of meth was a clear indication that—while he was apparently consuming some of his own product—Gonzalez was engaged in the active sale of methamphetamine, and he was taken into custody at the scene.
Gonzalez was then transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of being under the influence and for possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of sales.
He remains in custody with his bail set at $60,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
