The Orlando Police Department announced the arrests of 53 fentanyl dealers.
The department revealed the news of the arrests, which came after a nine-month investigation dubbed “Operation Good Call” and conducted by the Special Enforcement Division’s Overdose Unit, on Friday.
“They respond to any overdose that takes place here in the city of Orlando. These cases before were merely some that we would document because really there wasn’t much that you could work on,” Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said during a news conference. “They took it to another level.”
RIGHT NOW: @OrlandoPDChief and The Special Enforcement Division’s Overdose Unit are joined by @NinthCircuitSAO to make an important announcement in the battle against Fentanyl addiction and overdoses in our community. https://t.co/kHkagMJCwv
— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) June 18, 2021
BORDER FENTANYL SEIZURES SOARING AS CARTELS PUSH DANGEROUS DRUGS
He also said the operation potentially “saved thousands of lives” because every dose is as if “you’re literally, literally, potentially having someone who may be at a risk of losing their lives.”
Nine of the arrests stemmed from overdose deaths after authorities responded to calls and were able to save the user, Sgt. Stephen Marra, supervisor of the new overdose unit, stated during the press conference.
“We call the operation ‘Operation Good Call’ because when the detectives would get a phone number and they would call one of these dealers, as soon as they had the dealer agreeing to a fentanyl transaction, they then said, ‘OK. We have a good call,’ and these men suited up, and we went out there to try and make the arrest,” he said.
The operation seized 50 bags of fentanyl from one arrest, while two other people who were arrested were also indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder, according to the local news outlet Click Orlando.
Fentanyl has been seized at the U.S.-Mexico border more this year than in any of the previous three years, according to data from Customs and Border Protection.
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From October 2020 to April of this year, CBP uncovered 7,450 pounds of fentanyl, which represents a more than 2,600-pound increase from the previous year. In 2020, CBP seized 4,776 pounds of the drug, which was also a dramatic increase from the year before that, when authorities seized only 2,801 pounds of it.
The amount of the drug seized in 2021 represents a nearly 300% increase from 2018, when 2,283 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the border.
