WINTER HAVEN -- Law enforcement agencies say a random shipment of pills led them to the biggest meth haul in Polk County history, and broke up a drug ring being directed from a federal penitentiary. Six people have been arrested, including five people in the country illegally.
In a Thursday news conference, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd says detectives working with a multi-agency drug task force seized 1,342 pounds of liquid meth, with an estimated value of over $50 million, in "Operation Dirty Water". The meth was transported in orange buckets, to be converted to crystal meth for street sales. Also seized, more than 1500 Xanax (alprazolam) pills, more than 300 pounds of already crystallized meth, and 25 pounds of THC-laden gummy bears and candy.
Homeland Security investigators from Tampa and Atlanta and the Haines City police department assisted in the case.
Judd used the cross-border aspects and THC products to go after two familiar targets: border security and marijuana legalization. He mockingly described ta "drumbeat" of marijuana offenses as being "low-level crimes" with products "that were only supposed to go to very sick people." Medical marijuana is legal in Florida, but recreational use is not.
The sheriff also referenced the border situation. "Don't believe this crap you see on the evening news, 'there's not a crisis on the border'... there is a crisis on the border, (of) children and the drugs (being brought across)." Judd says the traffickers "have blood on their hands", both for the lives they destroy and the violence they use to stay in business.
Detectives were tipped off when a parcel shipped from Canada with about 2500 Xanax pills arrived at an address in Winter Haven. The suspected recipient, Amber Cayson, 37, was arrested. Deputies found the edibles, marijuana, and a pound of meth at her residence.
They say a Georgia woman, 43-year-old Jennifer Meers of Stone Mountain, delivered 26 pounds of meth in a suitcase to an undercover detective at a Lakeland hotel on March 13 and another 35 pounds on March 19. Meers was arrested by Georgia police on a warrant in late March. Her arrest led to three arrests and the discovery of eight locations related to meth labs. They also broke up a cockfighting ring.
Federal investigators say this ring is tied to the Juarez Mexican Cartel, known for targeted executions and violence.
Photo: WFLA-TV