(The Center Square) – A multi-agency drug trafficking investigation led by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force resulted in the arrest of eight people accused of working for two Mexican cartels.
Authorities seized 29 kilograms (64 pounds) of fentanyl, including 160,000 pills and 13 kilograms of powder, the most in county history.
With two milligrams considered a lethal dose, they seized enough fentanyl to kill an estimated 14.5 million people.
Two separate multi-agency investigations uncovered a fentanyl trafficking scheme run by the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation (JNGC) cartels, the two largest transnational criminal drug cartels in Mexico.
In the Sinaloa case, the fentanyl was smuggled from Mexico to Arizona, where it was transported to Florida. In the JNGC case, fentanyl was trafficked from the Atlanta area by an operative in California to Florida, investigators found.
One of the problems law enforcement is facing across the country is lax enforcement and penalties for major crimes, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference with multiple law enforcement partners.
One of the main suspects they arrested had been arrested in Georgia in 2021 at a lab with 60 kilos of liquid meth. “He was given four years and was out and we arrested him again. This guy is evil in the flesh. He’s personally responsible for the deaths of many children and many people across the United States,” Judd said.
“How in God’s green earth did this guy get out of jail in four years when he’s got 60 kilos of meth and he’s off to kill other people?” he asked.
The focus of the operation was national and international, stemming from the Biden administration border crisis, “and we’re not done,” he said.
“We’re going to focus on those that would traffic drugs throughout the United States. And if every law enforcement agency in the country cared as much as the [the law enforcement officers in the task force] imagine how many lives we would save.”
The Sinaloa investigation began in July 2024, when the HIDTA task force first seized Mexican oxy, blue pills stamped with “M”s that look like Oxycodone but are laced with fentanyl. The pills were trafficked from Sonora, Mexico, to Phoenix, Arizona, and then to Florida, investigators found.
Working undercover, detectives coordinated a total of six shipments of fentanyl pills to Polk County, resulting in an initial seizure of 17 pounds of fentanyl pills.
In April, undercover detectives met with a woman in a hotel parking lot in Lakeland, where she sold them approximately 9 pounds of fentanyl pills for a partial payment of $55,000. She was arrested in Phoenix in June on a PCSO warrant.
Also in June, undercover detectives arranged for another suspect to transport fentanyl from Sonora, Mexico, to Florida. Last week, he transported 9 pounds of fentanyl from Daytona Beach to Polk County and delivered it to the undercover detectives and was arrested. He previously flew from Arizona to Florida for a separate transaction.
Overall, they seized 35 pounds of fentanyl and arrested three suspects who face multiple felony charges, including fentanyl trafficking, conspiracy to traffic fentanyl; possession of drug paraphernalia; maintaining a vehicle to traffic drugs, among others.
The JNGC investigation began earlier this year, resulting in six suspects being arrested and 29 pounds of fentanyl seized primarily transported inside fake car batteries to evade detection.
One suspect based in Michoacan, Mexico, flew from California to Tampa to facilitate fentanyl sales to undercover detectives, according to the charges. He discussed a stash house in the Atlanta area, where drugs were being housed and sold, negotiated transportation fees and drove to Jonesboro, Georgia, to pick up fentanyl to deliver it to the undercover detectives, according to the charges.
He later made contact about a larger fentanyl delivery in Jonesboro resulting in Homeland Security Investigations special agents arresting another suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
In May, he offered to transport fentanyl from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to Polk County, arranging delivery and collection of payment resulting in detectives arresting everyone involved and seizing the fentanyl.
He next agreed to transport 15 pounds of fentanyl to south Florida for a $5,000 transportation fee, bringing his daughter with him from California to Florida. Upon arrival, they were arrested.
Multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies were involved in the operations. Funds for the undercover transactions and operation were allocated through a grant from the state legislature.
