Surveillance cameras meant to help a Martin County man feel safe at home, actually helped deputies put him behind bars.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder says Juan Cabral's own surveillance cameras caught him selling drugs, captured the people who sold them to, and also where he kept his secret stash.
“He had recorded all the evidence for us,” Snyder said.
The guests who were recorded engaging in drug activity could also be arrested.
Snyder says his team arrested 26-year-old Juan Cabral Thursday on selling and possession charges for crack cocaine and hydromorphone.
Deputies originally received a tip that Cabral was possibly selling drugs.
Deputies did their own surveillance and undercover drug buys, collecting enough of their own evidence to serve a search warrant at Cabral's home Thursday.
Little did deputies know, Snyder said, that they would gain more surveillance footage from their suspect.
Six surveillance cameras were discovered at the home when SWAT team members around his property at SE Norfolk Street.
“Who would have ever thought he’d save the tapes. He actually did,” Snyder said.
At least one of the cameras was pointed at a backyard shed.
Snyder says it shows Cabral going in and out of that shed, and measuring drugs before he would walk out with them and sell them.
Deputies also arrested Cabral’s girlfriend at the home, 20-year-old Julia Anne Rembert, for drug possession.
“We want every narcotics dealer in Martin County to be identified and arrested,” Snyder said.
