- May 8, 2024
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The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 18 people in connection with an undercover operation that lasted almost a year.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly announced in a press conference on Dec. 8 that an 11-month long undercover narcotics operation resulted in 35 named suspects, 18 of which were arrested. The investigation began in January and resulted in 24 search warrants, the seizure of $5.7 million in illegal drugs, several firearms and thousands of dollars in cash. The press conference took place early Thursday afternoon at the Flagler County Emergency Operations Center off of State Road 100.
Staly said in the press conference that they have confiscated enough heroin and fentanyl to kill 2.3 million people, based on the Drug Enforcement Administration's fatal dosage amount.
“This was truly an agency-wide effort to make our community safer from these poison peddlers,” Staly said. “I want to commend our undercover team, Special Investigations Unit, SWAT, Evidence, CSI, PACE Unit, our detention and booking teams along with our patrol deputies who were all involved in this 11-month investigation,”
“I want to commend our undercover team, Special Investigations Unit, SWAT, Evidence, CSI, PACE Unit, our detention and booking teams along with our patrol deputies who were all involved in this 11-month investigation.” — Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly
The operation — named Operation: Santa’s Naughty Little Sellers — also confiscated cocaine, MDMA, morphine, steroids, psychedelic mushrooms, dilaudid, THC and cannabis, meth and other illegal or controlled substances. Thirteen firearms were seized, Staly said, as well as almost $42,000 in cash.
The investigation issued 35 arrest warrants with a total of 71 charges have been filed so far, a FCSO press release said; arrests began at 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
“These dealers have sold their poison near schools,” Staly said. “In some cases it was a family affair — we arrested two sons [brothers] and a father that were selling poison. In another family business it was two brothers selling poison.”
The operation’s success is the result of several agencies working together, Staly said, including the community members themselves. He said many of the investigation’s tips came from residents.
Staly encouraged residents to continue sending tips to FCSO's "see something, say something" program.
“Sometimes it takes 11 months to make the cases,” Staly said, “but today they get to see the results of those tips and the ability the agency has to investigate it.”
The investigation is ongoing, and many, Staly said, will face additional charges. One suspect who was arrested Thursday morning fled FCSO deputies in his vehicle, tossing drugs out the window, Staly said. When officers caught up with him, he said deputies found trafficking amounts of fentanyl inside.
Staly said FCSO is also investigating several incidents as homicides that some of the suspects in the investigation may be involved in. The sheriff said this investigation should be taken as a warning to other drug dealers not connected to this investigation.
“I suggest you move out of Flagler County,” Staly said. “And by God, if you kill someone with that fatal dose of poison, we’re going to do everything we can to investigate you for murder and put you in prison for as long as the state will do it.”
To the suspects who escaped arrest from the sting, Staly suggested they turn themselves in to the Green Roof Inn, whether they call deputies to come get them or head to the jail themselves.
“You could continue to walk around, looking over your shoulder and wondering when the deputy sheriff is going to snatch you off the street and take you to jail,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
