Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the arrest of 51 individuals, including some allegedly involved with the Valentine Bloods gang, in a sophisticated drug operation out of Central Florida that included the seizure of over 70 pounds of meth and 10 pounds of fentanyl during a news conference this week.
“This was a highly organized, fentanyl-pushing enterprise operating in Central Florida that had ties all the way to California,” Uthmeier said. “We will continue dismantling these organizations from the top down. Anyone who traffics these poisons in Florida will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent.”
According to the attorney general, investigators detected a "highly organized" drug operation in Polk, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Orange counties beginning in August 2025. The operation also had ties to California.
Soon after, investigators allegedly found communications involving drug transactions and coordinated distribution during surveillance operations from October 2025 and January 2026.
Thirty-five defendants have been charged with either trafficking in direct hand-to-hand drug sales to undercover law enforcement officers or conspiracy to traffic through recorded communications.
Specific charges include trafficking of meth and fentanyl, conspiracy to traffic, racketeering, and conspiracy to commit racketeering.
Of those charged, 14 are allegedly associated with the Valentine Blood gang. The Valentine Blood gang is a subset of the United Blood Nation gang, founded in 1993.
Thirty-one defendants are currently in custody. One defendant is expected to be extradited after being found by law enforcement in Kansas, while the other four remain at large.
The remaining four individuals have active arrest warrants pending.
“Traffickers of methamphetamine and fentanyl are literally murdering people and tearing apart families,” Polk County Judd Grady Judd added. “The men and women who go after these drug dealers are doing a noble, but dangerous job—putting their own lives on the line, to protect their communities from the drug traffickers who are profiting from this destruction.”
Uthmeier also arrested multiple individuals in a large drug trafficking operation in Palm Beach County back in November 2025.
