Polk County fentanyl trafficking sting results in 64 arrests [Video]

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and other officials detailed a multi-year fentanyl trafficking investigation that lasted over three years, saw 64 people arrested and shut down two businesses in Lakeland.

Of those 64 people, eight of them, including married couple Hector Torres, 43, and Pilar Rivera, 41, who ran the trafficking scheme, are charged with racketeering, the sheriff said during the press conference Friday morning.

The investigation, “Operation Rooske, A Family Affair,” began in January 2021 after deputies discovered Torres and Rivera were running a fentanyl-based drug trafficking scheme through Rooske Fish Bait and Tackle and Rooske Motorcycle Parts and Accessories, both of which the couple owned in Lakeland, according to the sheriff.

“In essence, this fentanyl trafficking organization was the family business,” Judd said during the press conference. “The motorcycle shop and the bait shop were corrupt …