A routine traffic stop was the thread that started to unravel the drug dealing operation of a 35-year-old West Palm Beach man, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Timothy Frederick Maloney is facing numerous drug and weapons charges after detectives found large amounts of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, prescription pills, two handguns, and over $168,000 in cash in his home, storage unit, and pickup truck, records show.
It started to fall apart when two people were pulled over in February. They both admitted to buying drugs from Maloney. A confidential informant told detectives the same thing in March, the arrest report stated.
Investigators monitored Maloney’s home in the 1500 block of 43rd Street. They checked his trash on April 18 and 25 and found plastic baggies with cocaine residue and other drug paraphernalia that had been discarded, the report said.
Detectives served a search warrant about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at Maloney’s home and took a naked Maloney into custody. When investigators went to his bedroom closet to get him some clothing, they found a backpack with bundles of cash totaling $37,000, officials said.
They also found two vacuum-sealed bags and two glass jars containing marijuana, nearly 80 amphetamine pills, a loaded .45 caliber magazine, $682 cash, and various drug packaging paraphernalia in the closet, investigators said.
A search of the rest of the house turned up a revolver, a semi-automatic handgun, two boxes of razor blades and three digital scales with a white powdery residue hidden inside the kitchen stove, detectives said.
A police K9 alerted investigators to a gray Ford pickup truck parked in the driveway. They found several vacuum-sealed bricks of cocaine and heroin concealed under the truck bed and under the hood of the engine compartment. They also found baggies of crack cocaine hidden in the drainage pipe of the house gutter, officials said.
About 3 p.m. Wednesday, detectives searched a public storage unit registered to Maloney and located about a half-mile from his home. They found two duffel bags and a washing machine filled with bundled cash, a bag of marijuana, a box of .45 caliber ammunition and various drug packaging paraphernalia, investigators said.
Records showed Maloney had rented the storage unit in the 1200 block of 45th Street since May 2018 and had made over 400 visits since then.
When questioned, Maloney said, “I don’t know anything,” but after hearing two deputies talking about the storage unit seizure, Maloney added, “I overheard what you said about the money. Man, [expletive] just got harder,” according to the arrest report.
He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on charges that included armed drug trafficking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, records showed.
wkroustan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4303 or Twitter @WayneRoustan
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