POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and other officials detailed a multi-year fentanyl trafficking investigation that lasted over three years, saw 64 people arrested and shut down two businesses in Lakeland.
Of those 64 people, eight of them, including married couple Hector Torres, 43, and Pilar Rivera, 41, who ran the trafficking scheme, are charged with racketeering, the sheriff said during the press conference Friday morning.
The investigation, "Operation Rooske, A Family Affair," began in January 2021 after deputies discovered Torres and Rivera were running a fentanyl-based drug trafficking scheme through Rooske Fish Bait and Tackle and Rooske Motorcycle Parts and Accessories, both of which the couple owned in Lakeland, according to the sheriff.
"In essence, this fentanyl trafficking organization was the family business," Judd said during the press conference. "The motorcycle shop and the bait shop were corrupt businesses that were used as a means for money laundering."
Judd said that Rivera's daughter, 23-year-old Jeimylee, and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Miguel Castro, would receive the drugs and distribute them to the sellers. They were among the eight charged with racketeering.
Working alongside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution, undercover Polk County deputies would purchase fentanyl from the organization and learned the operation would reportedly sell 500-1,000 bags of fentanyl a day in Lakeland, the sheriff said in the press conference.
This reportedly prompted the sheriff's office to set up wiretaps as it soon discovered the trafficking was going well beyond county lines.
Through five search warrants conducted on June 20, 2024, the sheriff's office seized the following illegal drugs:
- Fentanyl (742.14 grams)
- Cocaine (3,585.42 grams)
- Methamphetamine (13.08 grams)
- Oxycodone (57 grams)
- Marijuana (228.69 grams)
The total street value of those drugs is estimated to be worth $475,348.60, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
The following items were also seized, according to the sheriff's office:
- $12,270 in US currency,
- Five vehicles ($154,000),
- Two personal watercrafts ($15,000),
- Dirt bikes and off-road vehicles ($40,000),
- Enclosed trailer ($4,000),
- Rooske Bait Store merchandise ($35,000),
- Rooske Motorcycle Shop merchandise ($55,000),
- Jewelry/electronics/firearms/designer apparel ($67,500),
- Bank accounts ($40,000), and
- Liens on the residence of Hector and Pilar ($200,000).
The total value of these seized items is $604,770.00, the sheriff's office said.
Watch the full presser below:
