The Polk County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office recently announced the “single largest” fentanyl bust in the county’s history, the agency said in a press conference Friday. WTVT report.
The sheriff’s office began investigating the illegal activity in August after learning of an organized drug trafficking operation based in Mexico. The department arrested four people in connection with the scheme and seized 14 kilograms of fentanyl, two vehicles and $5,261 in cash. Two of the suspects, Pedro Rodriguez Correa and Maria Machuca-Alderete, were in the country illegally, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. The other two, Maria Guadalupe Garcia and Sergio Garcia, were from California.
“Every time I come here to talk about fentanyl with my colleagues, I always say, ‘This is the largest fentanyl seizure in the state of Florida,’ and that’s what I’m talking about today again about seizures.” We received 14 kilograms of fentanyl,” Judd said Friday morning. “This is the largest single seizure in Polk County history, and it’s nothing to be proud of.”
One of the suspects, Guadalupe Garcia, told investigators she knew nothing about drugs and claimed she was delivering boxes of diapers.
“When was the last time you picked up a box of Huggies that weighed 27 pounds? Maria, there are no Huggies at the county jail, but we’ll get you there,” Judd said, according to WTVT. He is said to have said.
“They didn’t come here to better themselves or their families,” he continued, referring to the two undocumented immigrants. “They came here to kill American people with dramatic drug use, through a porous border that we need to close.”
Judd said the amount of drugs seized from the bust was enough to kill one-third of Florida’s population. He said the traffickers will pay $42,500 for shipping from Mexico to Florida. The 14-kilogram shipment was worth a total of $3.5 million, the agency reported.
According to the sheriff’s office, gang driver Rodriguez Correa brought a 6-year-old boy with him to deliver fentanyl. The Florida Department of Children and Families seized custody of the child.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Machuca Alderete and Rodriguez Correa on suspicion of illegally entering the country.
Machuca Alderete was charged with trafficking fentanyl, maintaining an illegal drug vehicle, resisting arrest with violence, assaulting a police officer, illegal use of a two-way communication device and possession of drug paraphernalia, WTVT reported. .
Rodriguez-Correa was charged with trafficking fentanyl, illegal use of a two-way communication device and possession of drug paraphernalia, the newspaper said.
Guadalupe Garcia and Sergio Garcia were both charged with trafficking in fentanyl, maintaining a vehicle for the trafficking of illegal drugs, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A fifth suspect, whose identity has not been released, remains at large and is wanted on similar charges.
“I want to say that the appropriate response is not just, ‘We will deal with cartels with hugs, not violence,'” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said at a press conference Friday. But what about how I requested and proposed in terms of us declaring a cartel terrorist organization and designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction? ”
“Over the past year, PCSO has seized an additional 30 kilograms of fentanyl, nearly enough to kill the entire population of Florida,” according to the sheriff’s office.
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