A two-year investigation
into the distribution of prescription pills in South Daytona ended with the
arrest of a former Daytona Beach police sergeant and his son, officials said
Tuesday.
Former Daytona Beach
police Sgt. Anthony Annatone Jr., 49, was charged with dealing in oxycodone.
His son, Aaron Annatone, 24, was also arrested and charged with dealing in
oxycodone and being a principal to trafficking oxycodone, said South Daytona
police Lt. Ronnie Wright.
Two others, Angelo
Lavezza, 22, and Desirae Shamp, 22, considered the brokers for the prescription
drug ring, were also arrested. Lavezza and Shamp were each charged with being a
principal to trafficking oxycodone.
Anthony Annatone Jr.
left the Volusia County Branch Jail after posting $50,000 bail. Aaron Annatone
was being held on $100,000 bail Tuesday, and Lavezza and Shamp also remained in
jail Tuesday, each on $50,000 bail.
According to Wright,
Anthony Annatone Jr. and his group were under surveillance by the FBI for two
years. The agency's Gang Taskforce/Safe Street Taskforce -- made up of members
of the South Daytona and Daytona Beach police departments and Volusia County
Sheriff's Office -- busted the prescription pills ring.
FBI sources said they
believe Anthony Annatone Jr. was the ringleader, Wright said.
The FBI initially
started investigating the group with incidents relating to gang activity and
the investigation ended up with the arrests of the Annatones. The FBI would
only say Anthony Annatone Jr. distributed an undisclosed amount of oxycodone in
South Daytona, Wright said.
Annatone Jr., who was
under surveillance, was arrested on his way to work Tuesday morning.
He was stopped at State
Road 40 and Tymber Creek Road at 9 a.m. Tuesday while driving a truck from
Turner's Pest Control, Wright said.
Aaron Annatone was
arrested at an apartment at 1600 Jones St., off Beville Road, in South Daytona
at 8 a.m. after the FBI-led taskforce raided it.
All the drug deals by
Lavezza and Shamp were conducted in the city of South Daytona, Wright said.
Shamp was picked up at
an apartment at Sweetgum Lane in Port Orange while Lavezza was arrested at his
girlfriend's Daytona Beach apartment at 1600 Big Tree Road.
In 2006, Port Orange
police and court records identified Aaron Annatone and his twin brother,
Anthony Annatone III, as part of a gang known as the "Port Orange
Boys" and the "386 Mafia."
Anthony Annatone Jr. was
fired from the Daytona Beach Police Department in 2000 after he pleaded no
contest to a charge of beating his then-girlfriend at a gas station in New
Smyrna Beach.
The Annatones are well
known for their criminal activity to several police departments.
According to a
News-Journal 2008 report, things got so bad between the Annatone twins and
police over the years that the family's criminal attorney suggested the
brothers and father, who own a lawn service, leave Volusia County altogether.
Police reports show
Anthony Annatone Jr. has a habit of coming to the twins' rescue when they've gotten
in trouble and giving officers at the scene a hard time.
In February 2008, the
father showed up in a white Hummer at a crime scene in Port Orange where one of
his sons was being detained. When he tried to interfere, police discovered the
father was driving with a suspended license.
Mark Slater, Chief
Executive Officer for Turner's Pest Control, said Anthony Annatone had only
been with the company as a part-time field technican for a little more than a
week when he was stopped.
A background check and
drug test done on Annaotone when he was hired did not raise any red flags,
Slater said.
"He was
clean," Slater said. "I just want people to know that Annatone does
not necessarily repesent the kind of people that work for us. We have a lot of
good people who have worked hard to make our company what it is."