A Charlottesville man was arrested on drug charges Sunday when he went to visit someone in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail, police officials said.
The arrest comes less than five months after Indio Martinez, 22, was released from state prison for his role in a 2008 shooting of a Charlottesville teenager.
Martinez was arrested on Sunday on two counts of distribution of cocaine, according to information from the Albemarle County Police Department.
He was being held without bond Wednesday in the jail where he was arrested.
Court records show an Albemarle County grand jury indicted Martinez on the drug charges on June 6.
Albemarle County Police Sgt. Darrell Byers said jail officials called the police Sunday evening after Martinez showed up for inmate visitation.
“It is routine for the jail to check for warrants when someone comes in for visitation,” Byers said on Wednesday. “We got a call from the jail that a wanted person was in their lobby and we went over and picked him up.”
Byers said he did not know specifics about the charges against Martinez or if they are related to the drug case against his older brother, Pee Wee Carmello Martinez, also 22.
Pee Wee Carmello Martinez was arrested on Feb. 21 after members of the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force initiated a traffic stop on Interstate 64 in eastern Albemarle County, according to a JADE media release at the time.
At the time of Pee Wee Carmello Martinez’ arrest, investigators said there were more arrests expected in the case.
The Martinez brothers are no strangers to law enforcement. Both were arrested in a 2008 shooting of a 16-year-old boy at the Blue Ridge Commons apartment complex.
In the shooting case, Indio Martinez was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of malicious wounding and one count each of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding and recruiting others to join in a criminal street gang.
The malicious wounding and gang charges are in connection to a group beating of two teenagers near the Downtown Mall. Police have said Indio Martinez asked them if they wanted to join the Bloods, but when they declined they were beaten.
He was released from prison on Feb. 7 after serving just three years of his sentence, according to information from the Virginia Department of Corrections.
His older brother, Pee Wee, was the confessed shooter in the 2008 case. He received a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to multiple charges, but the court suspended 16 years of prison time as part of the original sentence, court records show.
Pee Wee Carmello Martinez was released from prison on Jan. 21, less than two weeks before his brother was released, prison officials said.
Pee Wee Carmello Martinez was out of jail just a month before he was arrested on the drug charges. He too remains in the Charlottesville-Albemarle County Regional Jail without bond on Wednesday.
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