The Orange County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday that a yearlong investigation into an alleged morphine prostitution operation found 19 defendants and$ 1.5 million worth of medication.
Sheriff John Mina and the state’s attorney general James Uthmeier made the findings of” Operation Burn Baby Burn” at a press conference, which included the seizure of nearly$ 49, 000 in dollars and some weapons.
The methadone is thought to have been sourced from California and Mexico, while the methamphetamine was allegedly imported from Puerto Rico, with two defendants, Juan Carlos Oquendo and Luis Perez-Guzman, spearheading the goods. The distribution system expanded to Osceola, Polk, and Hillsborough regions, causing Uthmeier’s company to move in.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which helped with funding the operation through the State Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication system, also known as SAFE, the investigation started in September. According to Assistant Commissioner Lee Massie, the operation was$ 1 million.
Uthmeier remarked,” We want to make Florida the safest state in the country to raise a family, that is a promise.” It’s a guarantee that these guys can only stay, they say. There is no denying that we have the best rules police in the nation.
17 of the 19 people facing drug trafficking claims have been detained: Oquendo, 40, Perez-Guzman, 46, Kendrick Butler, 36, Jose Ayala-Rodriguez, 49, Denniz Andino, 41, Edward De La Cruz-Perez, 30, Anamaria Toledo, 47, Xuxa Carmona Sanes, 35, Brian Nazario, 37, Molly Wilson, 32, Juan Gabriel Gonzalez, 41, Nolan Lavery
David Santana, 44, and Valerie Multari, 39, are still at large. During the press conference on Monday, the entire names and faces of each were revealed to the media.
Nothing brings me joy more than knowing that our associates at the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution will pursue these people to the fullest degree permitted,” Mina said.
In Orange County, 341 people died from drug overdoses in 2024, according to the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s Office, 229 of which were related to fentanyl, a 30 % and 37 % decrease from 2023 to 2023, respectively.
Fentanyl has been the most fatal substance in recent years, leading to increased protection and care efforts, which they claimed led to a lower in deaths over recent years. The tendency is to see a global decline in opioid deaths.
The SAFE programme, which was established in 2023 to offer resources and technical assistance to local authorities fighting fentanyl trafficking, is one of the initiatives being carried out locally. The software received$ 20 million in funding for law enforcement in its first year, and it received$ 8 million for the fiscal year 2024-2025.
FDLE Assistant Commissioner Lee Massie said the agency’s work will remain as the Florida Legislature debates its resources for the following month.
” To date, we have spent more than$ 22 million of the$ 28 million we’ve been given,” said Massie. We intend to spend more money in the coming year to keep this venom off our roads.
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