Sheriff: Probe brings down drug operation
A major drug trafficking operation has been dismantled, resulting in the arrests of multiple individuals who the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said are responsible for trafficking hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to Central Florida.
At a press conference on Thursday, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said a law enforcement operation called “Operation Outta Hand” seized over a million dollars worth of drugs during its two-year investigation.
The investigation team included the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. DEA and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Nearly three dozen defendants face multiple charges for racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and trafficking cocaine and fentanyl.
“There is no doubt in our minds that the arrests of these individuals and the significant seizer of these drugs has saved lives already in our community and will continue to save lives,” Mina said. “We also know there are criminals who will see this as an opportunity to rise up and take place in the organization, and we’re here to let them that we will dismantle their drug trafficking organization and stop them in their tracks.”
According to MBI Director Ron Stucker, the drug trafficking organization was one of the largest cocaine trafficking operations the bureau has seen in Central
Florida in about three decades. The drug trafficking operation was active for up to six years and he estimates it was shipping in at least 60 kilos of cocaine per week into Central Florida.
One of the defendants, Carlos Miguel Velez Olivencia, lives in Orlando, and was directing the shipment of 220 kilos of cocaine from the Dominican Republic through Puerto Rico bound to Central Florida, Stucker said.
According to the MBI director, the defendants used the U.S. Postal Service and private parcel carriers to ship cocaine to Central Florida and distribute it throughout the state and up the eastern seaboard as far as Maine, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Stucker described the individuals as violent and in possession of firearms with the ability to convert the firearms into fully automatic weapons. At least five of the defendants have also been charged for illegally shipping firearms, he said.
Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith called the drug bust was one of the largest cases Orlando has seen in years. He said overdose deaths in Orlando often involved fentanyl, so it was “extremely important” to him to reduce the amount of fentanyl coming into Central Florida.
At the press conference, Stucker said the defendants had multiple addresses throughout the course of the investigation, but most were based in Orange and Osceola counties, while others lived in Puerto Rico.