PCSO announces largest fentanyl bust in county history

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced the arrest of three people Friday in what he said was the largest seizure of fentanyl in the agency’s history.

Judd said detectives with the Central Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force worked with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to conduct an undercover fentanyl drug trafficking investigation. He said the fentanyl was being manufactured in Mexico and brought to the United States to be made into synthetic pills and sold on the streets.

Detectives seized more than 11 pounds of fentanyl, an amount Judd said was sufficient to kill 2.7 million people. He announced the arrests of Ignacio Rodriguez, 28, of Bradenton; Mario Alberto Castro Solache, 29, of Raleigh, North Carolina; and Pedro Mondragon, 27, of Lillington, North Carolina.

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The Sheriff’s Office collaborated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit; U.S Border Patrol; U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa Office; and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, PCSO said in a news release.

The investigation began in September, when detectives received information that a trafficking organization was moving large amounts of fentanyl from Mexico to Bradenton and then into Polk County, the release said. Undercover detectives arranged to purchase fentanyl at $24,000 per kilo from an unidentified source in Mexico, the release said.

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Detectives identified Rodriguez as the local facilitator for the drug buy and negotiated the purchase of $60,000 worth of fentanyl, PCSO said. Rodriguez arrived to a meeting in Polk County carrying five kilograms of fentanyl, some of it concealed in a cereal box, the release said.

Detectives later met with Castro Solache, who came to Polk County to discuss another multi-kilogram sale of fentanyl, PCSO said. The suspect told detectives that he and a supplier in Mexico wanted to establish part of their trafficking organization in Polk County and that he planned to move into the county, the release said. Judd said that Mondragon was Castro Solache’s driver.

Detectives arrested Castro Solache and Mondragon on Oct. 12 and booked them in Polk County, the release said. Castro Solache — who is in the country illegally, Judd said — was charged with conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl and is in the Polk County Jail on a Border Patrol hold. Mondragon was charged with conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl and released on bond.

Rodriguez was arrested in Manatee County on Oct. 14 and charged with multiple felonies. He was released on bond the next day.

During a news conference Friday morning, Judd said the fentanyl supplier was connected to two Mexican drug cartels, La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa Cartel. Judd said traffickers processed the raw fentanyl into blue pills intended to resemble legal Oxycodone pills.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk Sheriff: Fentanyl bust caught Mexico-to-Polk County operation