SHERIFF CHITWOOD ANNOUNCES ARRESTS OF FENTANYL DEALERS, SUPPLIERS IN MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL CENTRAL FLORIDA OPERATION A joint investigation into a h
A joint investigation into a heroin, fentanyl trafficking organization operating across central Florida counties culminated with a series of arrests and the seizure of significant amounts of fentanyl and the equipment used to process it.
The 5-month multi-jurisdictional investigation into the Drew Daly drug trafficking organization, “Operation Daly Dose,” identified sources of supply altogether responsible for distributing multiple kilograms of fentanyl per month in Volusia and Lake counties.
While arrests have been made throughout the investigation, about two dozen defendants were taken into custody during a sweep Thursday that included nine search warrants executed across the DeLand and Orange City areas. The defendants’ various charges include armed trafficking in fentanyl, heroin, meth, cocaine, and MDMA, among many other crimes.
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More than 2,300 grams of fentanyl were seized during the investigation, along with about 53 grams of black tar heroin, 138 grams of cocaine, 423 grams of meth, 43 grams of MDMA, 180 opioid pills, 11 firearms (1 stolen), and more than $100,000 in cash and assets.
“There should be no sympathy for what these scumbags are doing to our community,” Sheriff Chitwood said in a Tuesday morning news conference joined by local, state and federal law enforcement partners. “We’re all talking all the time because we all have the same mission,” Sheriff Chitwood added of the partner agencies. “The mission is to keep our communities as safe as possible.”
“The agencies you see represented up here today are going to continue to attack this problem from an enforcement level,” said Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell. “But we need our parents and grandparents out there to talk to their kids and their grandkids about the dangers of this fentanyl.”
In addition to Drew Daly, the arrests included his suppliers, Vernon Woodward II of Orange City, and Preston Ingram of DeLand.
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Woodward’s DeLand home and vehicles were the target of an April 4 shooting where multiple 7.62 x 39mm shell casings were recovered, and a neighbor’s house was hit by a stray bullet.
At least one overdose death in Deltona is under investigation with a potential connection to the Daly organization. The 2,319.7 grams of fentanyl seized during the operation equate to more than 1.5 million individual doses.
The ring is also connected to a series of organized thefts at Walmart stores, where one of the defendants posed as an employee to steal 75-inch TVs and trade them for narcotics.
The arrests also included Daly’s girlfriend, Lauren Toce, who was responsible for a child who experienced a drug overdose in 2020 and survived after receiving Narcan at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. While Toce was incarcerated for violating probation for child neglect in that case, she conspired with Daly and his brother Patrick Daly in an attempt to smuggle cocaine, Xanax and other contraband into the Volusia County Branch Jail. Their efforts were intercepted.
“The fentanyl crisis continues to plague America and Florida is certainly not immune to the massive amounts of Fentanyl flooding into our country,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said following the operation. “This large-scale investigation has led to the dismantling of a fentanyl trafficking network and more than 30 individuals are now behind bars for buying and selling this poison. My statewide prosecutors will aggressively prosecute these cases and we will continue to fight back with our law enforcement partners against this crisis.”
The investigation was a joint effort led by the Volusia Bureau of Investigation (VBI) and the West Volusia Narcotics Task Force (WVNTF) along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
VBI is a Central Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative that investigates drug trafficking organizations. VBI is comprised of members from VSO and the DeLand, Edgewater, and Ormond Beach police departments as well as HSI and the FBI.
The WVNTF is a street-level drug task force comprised of members from VSO and DeLand PD. Also assisting throughout the investigation were detectives from the East Volusia Narcotics Task Force (EVNTF), which includes members from VSO along with the New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, Ormond Beach, South Daytona, Holly Hill and Port Orange police departments.
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