A traffic stop in Orange County led to the arrests of multiple individuals after police found hundreds of bags containing fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin.
On September 14, Florida Highway Patrol troopers from the Criminal Interdiction Unit conducted a traffic stop on a gray Kia that failed to stop at a stop sign in a residential area while driving without headlights.
During the stop, troopers determined that the driver of the vehicle, 27-year-old Michael Ramos of Orlando, had a suspended license. According to police, the passenger, 28-year-old Reina Mary Mora of Orlando, “inadvertently exposed contraband within her purse when providing her ID to troopers.”
A K-9 unit was brought to the scene and troopers were alerted to the presence of narcotics in the vehicle. A white powdery substance was found in the car that tested positive for fentanyl.
Before Ramos and Mora were transported to jail, troopers say they received information “leading them to a known fentanyl dealer in Orlando.” Ramos helped the troopers arrange a meeting to purchase additional narcotics, and together with the FHP CIU, the group drove north to meet with the dealer.
Upon arrival to the meetup location, 37-year-old Jose Luis Colon Melendez of Orlando and 40-year-old Josue Joel Gomez of Longwood were spotted by FHP driving without headlights. The two men were wearing orange and yellow construction vests.
FHP conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and a K-9 unit alerted to narcotics. Before Melendez was transported to jail, he agreed to speak with law enforcement and provided consent to enter his apartment to “turn over all his narcotics to troopers.”
After transporting Melendez to the Orange County Detention Center, authorities discovered that he had an active warrant out of Pennsylvania for a parole violation related to the sale of heroin. According to police, Melendez had been absconded from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections since 2015.
After searches of both vehicles and Melendez’s apartment, FHP troopers recovered approximately 34.29 grams of fentanyl, 10.28 grams of heroin, and 6.4 grams of cocaine. The amounts were all individually packaged for resale.
All four individuals were arrested and face a collection of drug charges.