ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Investigators said Wednesday that a drug trafficking enterprise that had been operating for decades out of an Orange County bar has been taken down.
▶ WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS
For years, investigators had received tips concerning drug activity, guns and gambling at PR House at Lake Underhill and South Goldenrod roads.
The Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation said up to 80 people a day would visit PR House to purchase cocaine.
Now 18 people, including the business’ owner, face charges including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and armed trafficking in cocaine.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said it first received a tip about illegal activity at the business in 2007.
Read: Investigators respond to both deadly shooting, possible arson in Central Florida neighborhood
Over the years, the Sheriff’s Office said they investigated PR House, made numerous arrests and seized illegal drugs.
But investigators said PR House was especially difficult to take down.
They said the Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at PR House in June and recovered cocaine, cannabis and three guns.
The next afternoon, investigators said operators of PR House had restocked their drug supply and resumed selling out of the business.
Read: Fake $10, $50 bills surface in Seminole County with possible ties to organized crime
“Our goal was to get the owners and operators of this place, so we could actually shut down the business,” MBI Director Ron Stucker said.
The MBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration joined the Sheriff’s Office on a new investigation into PR House in the spring.
In order to permanently close the place, law enforcement had to target the owner and the other alleged masterminds of the operation.
“Unfortunately, PR House is like a lot of places in the community where lower-level people can be addressed by patrol functions, but to get to higher level people you have to do a more complex investigation,” Stucker said.
Read: The Black community of West Winter Park feels a new housing project is pricing them out
That investigation ultimately determined that Rosa Lopez owned PR House.
Stucker said Lopez was aware of and even directed activities for the criminal operation.
For months, investigators said they worked to build a case against Lopez and others, including the man whom they believed to be supplying drugs: Anibal Lopez. He remains at large.
Investigators went undercover and stopped people as they left PR House.
“The customers would enter PR House, stay for a few minutes, purchase cocaine and either ingest it on the property or leave,” an investigator said.
Stucker said that cocaine was sometimes laced with fentanyl, and that children were sometimes present when drugs were sold.
The MBI said that over the course of the investigation, nine kilos of cocaine were seized along with 13 guns, two of which had their serial numbers removed.
See a map of the bar below:
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2023 Cox Media Group
