HIGHLANDS COUNTY, FLORIDA – A traffic stop in Avon Park on Sunday led to one of the largest drug seizures in recent memory for the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies confiscated enough fentanyl to kill nearly 40,000 people, as well as over a pound of heroin and nearly a pound of cocaine.
Around 7:40 p.m., Deputy Seth Abeln saw a blue Ford Focus on North Central Avenue that had a tag light out. After Abeln stopped the vehicle, Deputy Ben Jones and K-9 Gentry were called to do a free air sniff of the vehicle. Gentry indicated there were drugs in the car.
A search of the vehicle turned up a staggering amount of narcotics:
- 554 grams of heroin
- 450 grams of cocaine
- 99.6 grams of fentanyl
- 975 oxycodone pills
- 107 Xanax pills
- 90 vape pens with liquid
A dose of 2-3 milligrams of fentanyl is enough to be deadly, meaning there was enough of the drug to kill 40,000 people using 2.5 milligrams as a fatal dose.
To put that in street value: $15,000 of fentanyl, $20,000 of cocaine, $40,000 of oxycodone, and $45,000 of heroin, with the total seizure worth $120,000 on the street. This amount would be enough to kill nearly 40 percent of the people in Highlands County.
Deputies also found a loaded handgun inside the car.
The driver, 40-year-old Ruben Ramirez-Rivera, was arrested and charged with:
- trafficking cocaine
- trafficking heroin
- trafficking oxycodone
- trafficking a controlled substance
- possession of opium or a derivative (fentanyl) with intent to sell/deliver
- possession of a Schedule III or IV drug with intent to sell/deliver
- possession of heroin with intent to sell/deliver
- possession of cocaine with intent to sell/deliver
- felony possession of marijuana
- possession of a weapon during commission of a first-degree felony
- possession of drug equipment
Rivera is being held without bond at the Highlands County Jail.
“I’m very proud of the work done by the deputies involved in this arrest,” Sheriff Paul Blackman said. “To take this amount of drugs off the street is a huge accomplishment, and our county is safer because of it.”
A traffic stop in Avon Park on Sunday led to one of the largest drug seizures in recent memory for the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office.
Good job. Imagine, a young man acting alone with an experienced suspicion…does he just play it safe and let it slide or does he stop that vehicle, alone, in the dark, in a sketchy area, and walk right up to the driver side? No one would know if he took the former, safer route. No one but himself, and that is enough. I had a lot of good friends from the SO in my former business; I wouldn’t be a cop on a bet these days, and some of those old retired leos have told me neither would they. But this guy and a bunch more like him are, and they do stuff like this every day. In this case saving a lot of parents’ kids in AP and Highlands from the horror of this crap, this time. And do it all again tomorrow.
Good job.
40000 lives save from this FUXX UP Cartel piece of Sh*t kick him out of the country or throw him in the Alantic ocean and he should not be aound children he should be charge with 40000 tempted murders