Largest Fentanyl Seizure In Polk County's History Leads To 3 Arrests

POLK COUNTY, FL — Undercover detectives found 2 kilos of fentanyl concealed in a Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal box. Another 3 kilos of fentanyl were hidden in a yellow Igloo cooler.

Those 5 kilos represent nearly half of the 11 kilograms seized this month by undercover detectives in the largest confiscation of fentanyl in the history of the Polk County Sheriff's Office, said Polk Sheriff Grady Judd during a news conference Friday.

Detectives with the Central Florida High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, arrested three people that Judd said were attempting to establish a major fentanyl trafficking operation in Polk County.

Manufactured in Mexico, the fentanyl is smuggled into the United States in its raw form and then pressed into a pill form using pill presses designed to make the fentanyl resemble a blue 30-milligram oxycodone pill, Judd said. The pills are then sold on the streets to drug addicts who have died of overdoses because they thought they were taking an oxycodone pill.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl are potentially fatal, so one of the fake oxycodone pills contains 14 times the lethal dose.

“Our detectives seized over 11 pounds of fentanyl, which is enough to kill 2.7 million people," Judd said.

The fentanyl investigation began in September when detectives received a tip that an international drug-trafficking organization was selling multi-kilograms of fentanyl from Mexico to distributors in Bradenton. The drugs were then passed along to dealers in Polk County and sold on the streets.

Undercover detectives arranged to purchase fentanyl priced at $24,000 per kilo from one of the sources of the drug in Mexico through a distributor in Bradenton identified as 28-year-old Ignacio Rodriguez.

Rodriguez told uncover detectives that his supplier in Mexico would only deal in large amounts of the drug.

On Sept. 19, detectives negotiated the purchase of 6 kilograms of fentanyl for $60,000. Rodriguez showed up to the meeting with the undercover detectives in Polk County with 5 of the 6 kilograms — 2 in the cereal box and three in the cooler.

Rodriguez, who also offered to sell the detectives marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine that could be mixed with the potent fentanyl, cautioned the detectives to wear a mask and gloves around the drugs, explaining that they could overdose simply from being exposed to the drug.

In a separate drug deal, 29-year-old Mario Alberto Castro Solache of Raleigh, North Carolina, and 27-year-old Pedro Mondragon of Lillington, North Carolina, drove from North Carolina to Polk County on Oct. 11 to meet with the undercover detectives to discuss another multi-kilogram purchase of fentanyl.

Castro Solache told detectives that he and his supplier in Mexico planned to establish a drug trafficking operation in Polk County to be headed by Castro Solache who plans to relocate to Polk County.

Both men were arrested Oct. 12 and booked into the Polk County Jail. Castro Solache, who entered the U.S. illegally in May, was charged with conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl. U.S. Border Patrol asked that he be held without bond.

Mondragon was charged with conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl and bailed out of jail on Oct. 17.

Rodriguez was subsequently arrested by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office on a Polk County warrant Oct. 14. He was charged with trafficking in fentanyl, conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl, possession of a vehicle for drug trafficking, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released from the Manatee County Jail on Oct. 15 after posting $56,500 in bail.

Other than a charge of driving under the influence for Solache, Judd said none of the men have criminal histories in the United States. In fact, he said Mondragon told detectives that he wanted to be a police officer one day.

During their investigation, detectives learned that Rodriguez was trafficking fentanyl on behalf of two friendly Mexican drug cartels — La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa cartels — which operate out of the Guerrero region of Mexico known as Tierra Caliente, meaning "hot dirt."

According to the Mexico News Daily, the Tierra Caliente area includes nine municipalities that have been the focus of a long-running turf war between the La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa cartels and the rival Jalisco Cartel.

On Oct. 6, the cartels were responsible for opening fire on the city hall in San Miguel Totolapan, on of the nine municipalities, killing 20 people including the mayor and his father, Judd said, holding up a photo of the bullet-ridden town hall building.

"Since the current president of Mexico has been in place, 18 mayors have been killed," Judd said.

"We do a pretty darn good job, so far, of keeping that kind of rampage south of the border," he said. "But if you open this border like they're opening this border and bringing the product up here, when does that kind of activity move across the border, because it will?"

Taking a shot at the Biden administration's immigration policies, he said the drug cartels are able to smuggle fentanyl across the border with barely a challenge.

"It's not something to brag about that we seized 5 kilos of fentanyl," he said. "It's really a sad state of border security affairs. I'm here to tell you there is a direct nexus between warring gangs in Mexico. They're mainlining fentanyl into the United States and killing your children."

Also taking part in the investigation were the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Polk County State Attorney Brian Haas, the U.S Border Patrol, the Tampa office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.