STUART POLICE: ADULTS USING KIDS TO SELL DRUGS

STUART -- The drug dealer was only 14.

And he wasn't afraid of being busted when he sold three cocaine rocks
to an undercover police detective in East Stuart on Thursday.

"He says he can do the time straight up and be out in time to still
have fun on summer vacation," Stuart police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said.

That's just what his adult handlers counted on, as they laid low in
the wake of a recent bust of a major Treasure Coast cocaine ring,
police said. Intelligence shows the adults are looking for more
youthful offenders to fill the void and dissipate the heat.

Stuart resident Johnny Daniels, 27, was held without bail on federal
charges he ran a trafficking operation that funneled cocaine into
Fort Pierce using gang members. Port St. Lucie resident Derrick
Cooper, 34, was also held without bail on charges he supplied the
cocaine to Daniels' organization.

"Now when you take a dealer off the street like that ... some other
street-level dealers are moving in and they're going to start using
the kids to sell," Jacobson said.

Although the youth -- whose name was withheld by Scripps Treasure
Coast Newspapers because of his age -- wasn't linked to the ring,
investigators said he is a prime example of what's left in their wake.

"The adults are using the children to sell the dope, figuring they
won't face the reprisals," Jacobson said. "The people they're working
for don't get their hands dirty."

And the teens see a quick buck.

The teen in Thursday's bust about 3:15 p.m. in the 700 block of
Tarpon Avenue -- notorious for its criminal activity -- told police
he knew he only faced 21 days in juvenile detention under state law.

The teen's outlook was "very true," Jacobson said.

The Spectrum Jr.-Sr. High School student refused to give up his suppliers.

Jacobson said investigators would talk to the youth's parents, but
information about them wasn't immediately available.

The teen, who lives in the 1000 block of Southeast Bayou Avenue, was
charged with sale and delivery of crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of
a school and possession of cocaine.