The Ledger
LAKELAND, Fla. — Months of wire taps, surveillance stakeouts and the most ingenious detective methods possible have paid off with the dissolution of a narcotics ring with ties to deadly Mexican drug cartels, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday.
The Sheriff’s Office announced its arrests of 21 suspects, along with the confiscation of more than 150 pounds of cocaine and nearly pure methamphetamine, 15 vehicles and $533,450 in cash.
“What they are doing is so sophisticated only the best can catch them,” Judd said.
The group operated out of East Polk - mainly Lake Wales and Frostproof - and imported the narcotics from Morelia, Mexico.
But after more than a yearlong investigation into the drug ring, “We got their money. We got their dope. And their tail is in our jail,” Judd said at a news conference.
Judd said Wednesday he “conservatively” estimated the drug seizures’ street value at $15 million, making it the largest narcotics seizure from a wiretap in the county’s history.
Detectives received information in January that Gabriel Cortes, 33, of Homestead, was traveling to Polk County to meet Erick Chavez, 40, of 1871 Cypress Lake Road, Lake Wales, reports said.
After intercepting Cortes, detectives found about 4 pounds of methamphetamine, according to the release. He was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and driving with a suspended license.
While investigating Cortes, detectives learned Chavez was receiving drugs from Mexico and his brother, Homar Chavez, 23, of 148 N. Lake Reedy Blvd, Frostproof, according to the PCSO.
The two brothers were “being counseled” by their father, Crisantos Chavez, 56, whose last known address was 118 Brooks Road, Frostproof, according to reports.
The elder Chavez was arrested in 2006 by Polk detectives on an armed trafficking charge involving cocaine and methamphetamine. But after posting bail, he fled the area, most likely to Mexico, where detectives think he remains with close ties to two of the country’s most deadly organizations - the Gulf and La Familia drug cartels.
He is wanted on a Polk County warrant accusing him of armed trafficking in cocaine and methamphetamine.
Three others who have warrants outstanding, Natalio Chavez, Margarita Avellandeda and Tony Alvarado, are thought to be in Mexico as well, officials said.
“I’m not sure I’d want to be south of the border right now,” Judd said of those fleeing law enforcement. “They (the cartels) don’t give you due process before they cut your head off.”
Detectives said the drug ring was one of the most sophisticated operations they had seen locally: Mexican government officials were paid off.
Vehicles were carved out with surgical precision to smuggle the narcotics and professionally reassembled.
Some meth was put into a liquid form and stored in Corona beer bottles for transport, Judd said. Ironically, it was taxed at the U.S. border and given a U.S. Customs stamp of approval, despite crystallized formations and corroded bottle caps.
“They are very good,” Judd said. “Sometimes the best way they hid their dope was in plain view of everyone.”
Those involved also used countersurveillance techniques, learned from law enforcement reality TV shows, to monitor the Polk detectives’ movements, Judd said.
“They caught us over and over,” he said, “and our surveillance people are good.”
While the investigation began with a tip in December 2008, the most intensive parts happened within the past four months, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Donna Wood.
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