Hernando County drug bust leads to eight arrests, fentanyl seized in Spring Hill

Deputies hit a Spring Hill home on Fruitville Street after repeated complaints about heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic pointed to possible drug sales, and the search ended with eight arrests and a haul of fentanyl, methamphetamine and other narcotics.

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office executed the residential search warrant April 10 at 16155 Fruitville St. Detectives with the Vice and Narcotics Unit, backed by the Special Intelligence Unit, identified the home as a suspected trafficking spot after residents flagged the steady stream of people coming and going. When deputies served the warrant, they found 10 people on the property, including some inside the house and others in a camper in the backyard.

The search turned up about 65.7 grams of methamphetamine, 21.3 grams of fentanyl, 0.2 grams of oxycodone pills, 3.9 grams of alprazolam pills and 1.1 grams of marijuana. Deputies also found about 44.6 grams of a liquid believed to be a testosterone supplement, which still needs testing. The amount of fentanyl alone was enough to show why investigators treated the address as more than a simple possession case and moved in with a warrant.

Jason Russell Klier, 54, was identified as the main suspect, and investigators said he told them the fentanyl belonged to him and that he was selling it to support his own drug use. Danielle Harris, 38, told deputies she owned a significant portion of the methamphetamine found during the search. Five other people were arrested on narcotics charges, and one additional person was booked on an unrelated active warrant.

For neighbors along Fruitville Street, the raid was a direct response to activity that had already become hard to ignore. The sheriff’s office has said its enforcement focus remains on fentanyl and other trafficking-level drugs that threaten Hernando County families, and the case adds to a pattern of drug investigations on the same corridor. A separate narcotics warrant at a different Fruitville Street address in May 2025 showed the street has drawn repeated attention from investigators, not just one isolated raid.