More than a dozen people in Southwest Florida face charges after law enforcement agents busted a drug-trafficking organization that had brought more than $100,000 in drugs from Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The state attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit, Amira Fox, announced at a press conference on Wednesday, May 6, that several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies partnered on an “extremely complex, multi-year investigation” that has been dubbed Operation Gulf of America.
The investigation led to the arrests of 14 individuals throughout Lee and Collier counties.
These were the suspects:
In addition to the arrests, detectives executed searches at seven locations, which led to the seizure of large amounts of drugs and guns.
Here’s what detectives found:
“We work all types of crimes … but there’s none of those any more important than the work that you saw demonstrated in this case, where you have criminal organizations that are bringing illegal narcotics into our community, poisoning our children, our citizens,” said John Yancey, resident agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in Southwest Florida.
The drug trafficking organization that was being investigated in Operation Gulf of America is a transnational criminal organization with members outside of Florida, in places including Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Yancey said at the press conference.
He said that the local and state governments have partnered with law enforcement in those areas to continue working to bring down the crime ring.
Fox said that some of the suspects helping to operate the trafficking organization were using “sophisticated” methods to avoid detection but were unable to, and ended up being arrested on Tuesday, May 5.
“We had a little surprise for them yesterday, when NETFORCE came for them,” Fox said.
NETFORCE refers to a circuit-wide task force initiative to infiltrate and dismantle drug trafficking organizations, organized crime, racketeering and money laundering enterprises in Southwest Florida. Operation Gulf of America is one of many investigations led by the task force.
Fox also said that 125 law enforcement officers throughout the region made Operation Gulf of America a success.
Many of the officers worked “night after night after night with little sleep,” Fox said.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who was also present at the press conference, addressed Fox directly, gesturing in her direction and thanking her repeatedly for her “vision” to make Lee County a better place.
“Crime doesn’t operate within boundaries, and neither do we,” he said.
Tayeba Hussein is a breaking news reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News. Reach her at thussein@usatodayco.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Drug trafficking bust leads to arrests of 15 suspects across SW FL
Reporting by Tayeba Hussein, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
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