Multiple law enforcement agencies shut down a major fentanyl trafficking ring this month that was allegedly operating from two storefronts on U.S. 98 North and making drug deals in the parking lots of popular businesses across north Lakeland, Sheriff Grady Judd announced Friday.
A 3-year undercover investigation culminated June 20 in a dawn raid of the Rooske Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Shop and Rooske Fish Bait & Tackle Shop at 6908 and 6916 U.S. 98 North.
The businesses were in a small center containing four shops and a food truck out front. At 6 a.m., startling bangs on the front door alerted employees to law enforcement’s presence.
Judd said almost none of the two stores’ employees knew that Hector Baez Torres, 43, his wife, Pilar Rivera, their daughter Jeimylee Baez Rivera, 23, and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Miguel Castro Rivera, were laundering drug money through the two small businesses.
During the raid, detectives stripped everything from both shops, loading it all into box trucks and hauling it to the sheriff’s office.
Why it matters: A 79-page affidavit showed the drug deals were happening in the packed parking lots of places like McDonald’s, the Cinemark XD movie theater at Lakeland Square Mall, Sam’s Club, Dunkin’ Donuts, and the Walmart Super Center, all in north Lakeland. Those locations were chosen by the drug dealers, Judd said, because they wanted to be able to blend in with the crowd if things went wrong.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Arresting this ring means the community is safer, Judd said.
“We care about your relatives and your children, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep them safe,” Judd said during a Friday morning press conference.
PCSO spokesman Scott Wilder said the synthetic opioid is manufactured by Mexican drug cartels, using chemicals mainly imported from China.
Two deaths: At least two of the 64 people arrested during the three-year investigation of this drug ring have died of fentanyl overdoses, Judd said. He identified them as John Manganello, 42, and Willie Morales, 43.
“We arrested a total of 64 people, so we don’t know how many others we NARCANed, or were NARCANed, to save their life,” Judd said during a press conference .
NARCAN is the brand name of Naloxone, a fast-acting, nasal-spray treatment used by first responders to immediately counter the effects of fentanyl and other opioids.
This is the fourth major fentanyl bust in the last year.
Nearly 500 Polk County residents have died of fentanyl overdoses in the last decade.
At least 52 of the people arrested in the ring were low-level buyers who would purchase enough to resell to pay for their habit. As they began arresting them, detectives realized there was a much larger ring operating in Lakeland.
Unrelated tragedy: Baez Torres and Rivera are the grandparents of a 3-year-old boy who died in a parking lot shootout at the Cambridge Cove Apartments in March.
Judd said Jaquez Norton’s mother, Yeimarie Baez, and Jaquez’s alleged killers were not connected to this drug bust. However, he added that the family’s drug dealing didn’t stop after the March 11 shooting. Three men were arrested and charged with Jaquez’s murder.
Coordinated efforts: The investigation began in January 2021 and included coordination between the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution and Attorney General Ashley Moody.
The investigations were conducted with the assistance of the State Financial Assistance for Fentanyl Eradication Florida Program, managed by FDLE. In 2023, the Florida Legislature established state funding for the SAFE program to conduct investigations designed to combat illegal fentanyl trafficking. The grant provides financial support and assistance for approved fentanyl-related investigative costs, such as overtime, travel, investigative supplies and equipment, and training.
The tens of thousands of dollars in cash used to make the drug purchases came from this fund.
Tapped phones and undercover purchases: The affidavit shows that Polk County Sheriff’s undercover investigators called Hector Luis Baez Torres in June 2021 to buy 40 bags of fentanyl for $400. They met Baez Torres at the Rooske Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Shop on U.S. Highway 98 North. His wife, Pilar Rivera, gave the detective the narcotics.
Many of the subsequent deals were with Luis Daniel Ramos Delgado, 48, at his home in a trailer behind the Cozy Court Motel, at the corner of U.S. 92 and Woodland Avenue — half a mile west of Santa Fe Catholic High School.
Undercover detectives began watching Delgado, Baez Torres and Miguel Castro Rivera. They secured a warrant to tap six phone lines and record calls. The affidavit outlines their meetings, movements and phone calls as they coordinated drug deals, deliveries and bank deposits.
By May of this year, the undercover transactions had increased to 1,600 baggies for $8,000.
Children involved: Judd said that the Riveras have two small children, ages 2 and 4 years old, the couple was packaging hundreds of baggies of the deadly drug daily in a room directly across from the children’s playroom.
“DCF knows that, and that was reported to DCF when we arrested them,” Judd said, adding that Miguel Castro Rivera wore “a face mask to protect him, and yet, this is going on in the room adjacent to where the 2- and 4-year-old children play. You think it’s a problem? I know it is.”
The baggies were decorated with black and white cartoon pandas, black spades or patriotic stars, which might attract the attention of curious children.
Judd said he was unsure if the children were taken into child welfare custody.
See a slideshow of seized items:
Two Sea-Doo Personal Watercraft seized during a three-year investigation of a fentanyl-selling ring in Lakeland. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
Package of seized fentanyl baggies. | Courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office 
Two motorcycles seized during a three-year investigation of a fentanyl-selling ring. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
A motorcycle confiscated from alleged drug dealers in Lakeland. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
Some of the semi-automatic weapons seized during a three-year investigation of a fentanyl ring in Lakeland. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
The Rooske Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Store on U.S. 98 North, which investigators say served as a front to launder money for a drug ring. | Courtesy of Staci DaSilva, NewsChannel 8 
The Rooske Bait and Tackle Shop on U.S. 98 North, which investigators say was a front for drug selling. All merchandise was seized from the store on June 20. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd holds up a semi-automatic weapon, emblazoned with a Louis Vuitton logo, during a press conference on Friday, June 28, 2024. | Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow 
The Cozy Court Motel along U.S. 92, where investigators say Luis Daniel Ramos Delgado, 48, was selling fentanyl. | Courtesy of Google Maps 
A poster of the 64 people arrested during the three-year fentanyl ring investigation. | Courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff's Office
Seized items: On Thursday, the sheriff’s office showed some of the items seized from those arrested. Two three-wheel motorcycles, two Sea-Doo personal watercraft, and an enclosed trailer were displayed outside PCSO headquarters, while nearly a dozen pistols and semi-automatic rifles sat on a table beside Judd as he spoke.
Judd held up a semi-automatic rifle emblazoned with the Louis Vuitton logo and a tiny baggie filled with flour for display purposes, about the size of a penny, that was used in most of the purchases.
The total value of seized assets is $604,770. Those assets, combined with the organization’s seized illegal drugs, produced a total impact of $1.08 million on the Rooske Drug Trafficking Organization.
A lien was also placed on Baez Torres and Pilar’s $200,000 house.
Charges
Those facing racketeering or conspiracy to commit racketeering are:
- Hector Baez Torres.
- Pilar Rivera.
- Jeimylee Baez Rivera.
- Miguel Castro Rivera.
- Luis Ramos Delgado.
- Wilma Fuentes Laureano.
- And Casimiro Bidot Del Valle, 59, of Kissimmee.
Jeimylee Baez Rivera and Miguel Castro Rivera also face additional drug and weapons charges, along with negligent child abuse without bodily harm.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office website has the full list of charges and those arrested.
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