Feds bust Miami-area drug hub they say could produce 250K counterfeit opioid pills
Federal agents busted a potent drug hub this week that they say had the capability of manufacturing up to 250,000 counterfeit pills containing synthetic opioids such as fentanyl — with an estimated street value of $500,000 to $1 million.
The investigation started with a tip in December that a Homestead man had received one kilogram of Firmapress, a baby blue product used as a binding agent to “press,’‘ or manufacture, “M30” pills with illicit narcotics, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration affidavit.
Agents later discovered that since last May, the man had received 25 kilograms of Firmapress, with each kilo capable of producing 10,000 counterfeit M30 pills.
On Tuesday, DEA agents arrested Kevin Branson, 24, who has a prior drug-trafficking conviction, George Christopher Alvarez, 24, and Alvarez’s girlfriend, Lisbey De La Caridad Diaz Hernandez, 29, who works as an exotic dancer. All are from the Homestead area.
Branson and Alvarez are charged with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, butonitazene and protonitazene. Branson is also charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. Separately, Diaz is charged with maintaining a “drug-involved” premise, the residence she shared with Alvarez.
All three had their first appearances in Miami federal court on Wednesday, with detention hearings on Thursday and Friday. Their arraignments on formal charges will be in February.
Suspicious packages transported to post offices: feds
The affidavit, filed along with a criminal complaint by federal prosecutor Tony Gonzalez, said DEA agents did surveillance of Branson and Alvarez at their homes as they transported suspicious packages to U.S. post offices in the South Miami-Dade area. The agents, using K-9 dogs in their inspections, uncovered thousands of synthetic opioids stashed in the parcels.
DEA agents caught their biggest break last week at a U-Haul storage facility in Homestead when they witnessed Alvarez pick up a hydraulic tablet-press machine, or “pill press,” and a few cardboard boxes in his black Chevrolet Silverado and brought them to his residence in Homestead, according to the affidavit. Soon after, Branson arrived in his white Merecedes-Benz C250 at Alvarez’s home.
On Monday, DEA agents obtained a search warrant from a federal judge for Alvarez and Branson’s residences and vehicles, as well as the U-Haul facility.
According to the DEA affidavit, agents found different types of counterfeit pills, a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic handgun, bulk cash and jewelry in Branson’s home.
Thousands of counterfeit drugs found: feds
In Alvarez’s home, which he shared with his girlfriend, agents discovered thousands of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, pill press components and other equipment.
At the U-Haul facility, agents found the “unregistered pill press wrapped in a fitted gray bed-sheet” that they had seen earlier at the storage facility and at Alvarez’s home. They also discovered pill press components — along with 346 grams of crystal meth, ecstasy tablets and other suspected narcotics.
Inside Alvarez’s Silverado truck was a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun, which he said he owned.
