Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida recently announced the “single-largest” fentanyl bust in the county’s history, the department revealed in a Friday press conference, WTVT reported.
The sheriff’s office launched the investigation into the illicit operation in August after it learned about an organized drug trafficking operation based out of Mexico. The department arrested four individuals in connection with the scheme and seized 14 kilograms of fentanyl, two vehicles, and $5,261 in cash. Two of the suspected criminals, Pedro Rodriguez Correa and Maria Machuca-Alderete, were in the country illegally, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. The other two individuals, Maria Guadalupe-Garcia and Sergio Garcia, were from California.
“It seems like every time I come up here to talk about fentanyl with my colleagues I’m always saying, ‘It’s the largest fentanyl seizure in the state of Florida’ and, once again, that’s what I’m saying today with a seizure of 14 kilos of fentanyl,” Judd stated Friday morning. “This is the single-largest seizure in the history of Polk County and that’s nothing to be proud of.”
One of the detained suspects, Guadalupe-Garcia, told deputies that she did not know anything about the narcotics and claimed to be delivering a box of diapers.
“When was the last time you picked up a box of Huggies that weighed 27 pounds? Maria, we don’t have any Huggies in the county jail, but we will have you there,” Judd said, according to WTVT.
“They didn’t come here to better themselves and their family,” he continued, referring to the two illegal migrants. “They came here to kill people in America with a deadly drug through a porous border that we need to seal off.”
According to Judd, the amount of drugs seized in the bust is enough to kill one-third of Florida’s population. He stated that the traffickers expected to be paid $42,500 for the delivery from Mexico to Florida. In total, the 14 kilogram shipment was worth $3.5 million, the office reported.
According to the sheriff’s office, Rodriguez-Correa, the driver for the criminal organization, brought a six-year-old boy along for the fentanyl delivery. The Florida Department of Children and Families seized custody of the child.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on Machuca-Alderete and Rodriguez-Correa for being in the country illegally.
Machuca-Alderete was charged with trafficking fentanyl, maintaining a vehicle to traffic illegal drugs, resisting arrest with violence, battery on an officer, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and possession of drug paraphernalia, WTVT reported.
Rodriguez-Correa was charged with trafficking fentanyl, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the outlet.
Guadalupe-Garcia and Sergio Garcia were both charged with trafficking fentanyl, maintaining a vehicle to traffic illegal drugs, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A fifth suspect, whose identity has not been released to the public, is still at large and wanted for similar charges.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said during the Friday news conference, “I would submit to you that an appropriate response would not just be, ‘We are going to address the cartels with hugs, not violence.’ But how about how I have demanded and suggested in that we declare the cartels terrorist organizations and we designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.”
“Over the past year, the PCSO seized 30 additional kilograms of fentanyl – about enough to kill all the people in the state of Florida,” according to the sheriff’s office.
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Illegal immigration, Illegal migrants, Open border, Border crisis, Migrant crisis, Florida, Polk county, Grady judd, Ashley moody, Fentanyl, Fentanyl crisis, Fentanyl bust, Drug bust, Drugs, Drug trafficking, News