DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — There are motels in Daytona Beach operating with alleged drug operations, seemingly in plain sight, despite being raided by police, a monthslong Spectrum News 13 Watchdog investigation has found.

After researching crimes happening at multiple motels, the Spectrum News 13 Watchdog team found a history of reports of gun violence, drugs, and rapes. For at least two of these motels, Camellia Motel on North Atlantic Avenue and The Best Southern Sun Plaza on South Ridgewood Avenue, issues date back at least three years. 

Both of these properties were the subject of raids in December. Sun Plaza was raided for a second time in late February. The owner has been arrested twice on charges of allowing illegal drug activity to continue on his property. 

"Raise the Standards a Little Bit"

Community organizer Rell Black knows the issues at these properties all too well.

“It's either 16 police officers there, it’s either someone overdosed on a Tuesday, it’s either someone has gotten stabbed on a Thursday. It’s always something going on,” Black said. 

Black, a Daytona Beach native, said he’s tried to have city leaders address the problem, but his efforts to fix the issues have gone no where. 

“I’m not knocking y’all's businesses. I’m not telling y’all what to do," Black said. "I’m not saying what people should do behind closed doors. Enjoy your life. But at the same time, I’m saying clean it up a little bit. Raise the standards a little bit.” 

Spectrum News sifted through logs of hundreds of calls for service at both addresses, getting dozens of reports detailing incidents of drug abuse, rape, and even a murder back in 2018 at the Sun Plaza.

Police reports also say that owners and/or maintenance personnel on staff knew about illegal activities and did nothing to stop it. 

“These are two of the hotels we were looking at and ultimately led to multiple search warrants being executed for a series of rooms on those properties," said Daytona Beach Police Capt. Scott Lee, who heads up the Problem Oriented Policing Unit. "As we developed those cases and investigated those cases, we determined that the maintenance folks that were there, and sometimes the property owners, [were] complicit in letting the nuisance continue.”

"We've Kind of Taken a New Approach to the Problem"

Lee said he and his team are working to combat issues at "so-called" nuisance properties across the city.

When asked why it took so long to address these issues, Lee said he believed past efforts to address these properties probably weren't as effective.

“I think what you are seeing is we’ve kind of taken a new approach to the problem, and that is why you are seeing a different type of result right now," Lee said. "It is not that the problem was unnoticed or unaddressed, it was just being addressed in a different way that probably wasn’t as effective as what we have come up with right now.” 

The “new way” they tackle these issues is starting with history, Lee said. They investigate problems that have occurred over time and see what the owners have been doing to combat issues.

He said they then start watching the place and put different “police tactics” in place like undercover work, or coordinated raids. 

City Commissioner Quanita May said while everyone wants to fix the issues quickly, the problems were not created overnight and will take time to resolve.

“For me, I’m about incremental change over time, and then eventually you have a big transformation. And, that is kind of what we are going through right now,” May said. 

May also agreed that changes to city ordinances could help speed up the process.

Rell Black said he’s hopeful this “new method” will give way to quick results. 

“There’s an issue and something needs to be handled because if we are going to improve this community as a whole, every part of the city has to step up and raise its standards,” Black said. 

Spectrum News 13 reached out to the owners at both properties. The owners at the Camellia Motel never responded to our calls. We did speak with the owner at the Best Southern Sun Plaza. He said he had nothing to say.