A Merritt Island drug dealer who supplied users with fentanyl and cocaine until a sheriff’s SWAT team raided his mobile home has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A Brevard County jury convicted JEREMY D. PRIEST, 51, in February of trafficking fentanyl and cocaine in 2021 based on evidence presented by Assistant State Attorneys Rebecca Price and Bernadette Serafinowicz. The prosecutors also convinced the jury that Priest should be sentenced as a Habitual Felony Offender, a status that allows the court to increase the maximum prison terms in Florida.

On April 15, Circuit Judge Kathryn Speicher sentenced Priest to 30 years in state prison followed by lifetime probation. He received credit for 1,341days already served in jail awaiting trial.

“We thank the jury for their decision,” Price said. “It allowed us to remove Mr. Priest and his dangerous drugs from the community and keep people safer.”

Priest became a target of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in 2021 when its Special Investigations Unit started looking into “drug distribution activities occurring throughout the premises” at his home on St. Charles Avenue just south of Kennedy Space Center.

Deputies executed a search warrant there, where they met Priest, a six-time convicted felon. They also found 523 grams of fentanyl, 45.6 grams of cocaine, $11,182 in cash, and a loaded Glock 9mm handgun stashed  throughout the home.

That 2021 trafficking case was the first of two pending against Priest. Agents searched his home again in 2023 and seized fentanyl while Priest was free on bond awaiting trial.