BIG COPPITT KEY, Fla. – Deputies said “ongoing complaints of drug activity” at a South Florida firefighter’s home led to the first responder’s arrest on multiple felony drug charges on New Year’s Eve.
Austin Michael Kimbler, 28, has been employed with the Key West Fire Department since July 2018, a city official confirmed Thursday. He was caught, deputies said, with illegal anabolic steroids and a party drug known as “pink cocaine.”
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According to an arrest report from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, deputies had requested a search warrant Monday for Kimbler’s home on Del Mar Boulevard on Big Coppitt Key. They executed it Tuesday.
The report states that MCSO deputies pulled over Kimbler in his Jeep Gladiator at around 6:20 a.m. as he left his home.
A K9 dog alerted to drugs in the vehicle, deputies said, and a search revealed a glass vial of testosterone enanthate, an anabolic steroid, and “a torn clear baggie which contained a bright pink powder residue” the deputy recognized as “tusi,” a party drug also known as “pink cocaine.”
The latter drug, described by experts as a “concoction” of various substances, made headlines in South Florida after a social media model blamed it for a crash in downtown Miami that left two people dead.
Deputies also found multiple “plastic bottles containing urine often associated with efforts to defeat drug tests” in Kimbler’s vehicle, MCSO spokesperson Adam Linhardt said Thursday.
A search of Kimbler’s residence turned up multiple baggies and a straw containing cocaine residue, along with five glass bottles and four vials containing various anabolic steroids, the report states.
Deputies said they also found two pill bottles containing the steroid stanozolol and clomifene, a female infertility drug banned in sports owing to its use as a performance-enhancer.
They said they also found an electronic scale “with cocaine residue on the top.”
Kimbler, facing five felony and two misdemeanor drug charges, was released from MCSO’s Key West jail facility on a $20,000 bond on New Year’s Day, records show.
A Key West city spokesperson said he’s scheduled for a predetermination hearing regarding his employment status on Monday.