Jacksonville man arrested in undercover operation outside Orange Park Wawa

Willie Holt went before a judge who set his bond at $265,000

ORANGE PARK, Fla. – What began as an agreed upon drug deal in the parking lot of a Wawa gas station turned into a drug bust by Clay County deputies, an arrest report shows.

Willie Charles Holt, 38, of Jacksonville now faces one count of trafficking heroin and one count of using a communication device to facilitate a felony.

According to a heavily redacted arrest report obtained by News4Jax, Holt was arrested Tuesday afternoon outside the Wawa gas station on Park Avenue in Orange Park after he was allegedly found with an undisclosed amount of heroin following a drug deal with a confidential informant used by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office Organized Crime Unit.

The report states the Holt agreed to sell the informant seven grams of heroin for $700. When Holt pulled into the gas station to allegedly facilitate the drug deal, deputies moved in on him.

According to the report, as detectives got closer to Holt’s car, they say Holt was seen pulling an object out of his pants and placing it on the floorboard between his legs. Holt was first detained, then eventually arrested.

Because the report was so heavily redacted, it’s unclear if the object deputies saw was a weapon or drugs.

News4Jax can confirm deputies did seize enough heroin to charge Holt with trafficking, a felony. According to state law, trafficking four to 14 grams of heroin carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Anything beyond 30 kilograms carries a life sentence.

A News4Jax background check on Holt revealed he had 20 interactions with law enforcement officers between 2001 and 2016. In 2001, Holt was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison after he was convicted on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Holt has also been previously convicted on multiple charges of drug possession and in 2005, he was facing charges of trafficking more than 28-grams of cocaine, but the charges were later dropped.

Holt went before a judge Wednesday morning who set his bond at $265,000.


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