MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Three men from New York were arrested Wednesday after, deputies say, they transported 10,000 fentanyl pills with a street value of $300,000.
"When I walked up to that car and saw that bag, which turned out to be two-and-a-half pounds, I was absolutely flabbergasted," Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said during a news conference Thursday. "Every one of those pills had the potential to kill who ever took them."
Martin County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested Jeffry Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ortiz, 30, Yelson Daniel Alvarez-Ortiz, 26, and Carlos Antonio Almonte-Melo, 36 in the parking lot of a retail shopping plaza on Federal Highway.
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Deputies said the three men are suspected to be part of a larger drug trafficking organization.
"We do think that we have representatives of cartels here," Snyder said.
All three are considered flight risks but were given a bond of $200,000.
They face fentanyl trafficking charges, which carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison.