Storage Wars Star Spends 45 Days In Jail — His Secret Drug Arrest
Dec. 6 2012, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
By David Perel - Executive Vice President/Managing Editor Breaking Celebrity News
The controversy surrounding A&E’s hit reality show Storage Wars continues to grow as one of its newest featured stars recently spent several 45 days in jail stemming from a felony drug conviction, Breaking Celebrity News is reporting exclusively.
Turmoil within the show is at an all-time high. Execs have locked out Dave Hester after offering and then rescinding a contract option, a story first reported by Breaking Celebrity News.
Now we’ve learned that Mark Balelo, who is being used to fill the void of Hester’s on-screen absence, recently spent 45 days in jail after being sentenced to 132 days for a probation violation.
Balelo pled guilty to the felony charge of sale or transport of a controlled substance in 2009. At that time he was sentenced to 60 days in jail and given three years probation. But he violated that probation in 2011 and was sent back to jail late in the year.
Balelo, who has been taping episodes in place of Hester, confirmed his drug conviction to Breaking Celebrity News in an exclusive interview, explaining that a hotel room was rented in his name and his friends were partying there. “ I wasn’t even there. It’s not a big deal,” he told Breaking Celebrity News.
But in June, 2011 police discovered Balelo transporting a firearm, which he found in a storage locker he bought. Around the same time Balelo left the state as part of a custody battle over his children. He was jailed for months for the probation violation.
"The whole thing was terrible,” his girlfriend Elizabeth Metzidis told Breaking Celebrity News in an exclusive interview. “I want people to kn