By Madeleine Marr
Miami Herald
LEE COUNTY, Fla. — A massive amount of drugs is off the streets of Lee County, Florida.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced the arrests of two men after an “extensive” narcotics investigation on Thursday dubbed “Operation Narco Navidad.”
Investigators were reportedly tipped off by the U.S. Postal Service Inspector last month about suspicious packages coming in from Puerto Rico.
Marceno said the suspects — Roberto Navarro, 48, of North Fort Myers, and Anibal Pagan, 49, of Cape Coral — also used various addresses to do their alleged trafficking.
Deputies were eventually led to a storage unit in North Fort Myers that contained drugs, money and the gun.
A Facebook post included pictures of what authorities found in the storage unit near Navarro’s home.
The haul included 2 kilos (approximately 4 pounds) of cocaine, a handgun, as well as an eye-popping $1.1 million in cash. LCSO pictures show the bills stacked in bundles, laid out on a long table.
“The residents of Lee County can rest easy,” as both suspects will both be “spending the holidays in the Marceno Motel,” said the post. That’s the sheriff’s cheeky name for the county jail.
The sheriff added that the seized money will be used to combat drug-related crime in the area.
”We’re turning bad money, good.”
Navarro and Pagan are both due in court Jan. 9.
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