WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — The Polk County Sheriff's Office said a "family-run" drug operation busted in Winter Haven led to the arrests of 12 people.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, nine adults and three juveniles were arrested, on multiple charges dealing with illegal drugs.
Investigators said they seized 1,366 grams of methamphetamine, 980 grams of cocaine, 901 grams of ecstasy, 224 grams of fentanyl, 158 grams of marijuana, 9 grams of Oxycodone, 202 prescription pills, one pill press, and one gun.
According to Polk County Sheriff’s Office enough fentanyl was seized to kill 95,500 people. In total, the street value of the drugs was estimated to be nearly $140,000.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said the Rogers family has "been trafficking drugs and committing other crimes in the area since the 1980s."
"Members of the Rogers family are very well known to law enforcement and have been arrested many times over the years," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "They have been a cancer in the Inwood community for a long time, exposing families there to unwanted drug activity, gangs, violence and more."
According to PCSO, those arrested included
- Kenneth "Pop" Rogers, 38
- Odia Rogers, 69
- Tameka Rogers, 31
- Theresa Prince, 59
- Rafel Rogers, 39
- Jordan Rogers, 21
- Two 16-year-old females and a 15-year-old
- Gerard Hall, 32
- Alpavin Tucker, 36
- Dominique Rogers, 28
The arrests came at multiple locations as search warrants were served on June 22. Multiple agencies, including the Highlands County Sheriff's Office and Lakeland Police, assisted in the investigation.
According to Polk County Fire Rescue drug overdose calls have increased over the past five years.
“It’s almost every day that there is a fentanyl or fentanyl type overdose," said Dr. Paul Banerjee, medical director for Polk County Fire Rescue.
Banerjee said in 2022 first responders administered Narcan 296 times.
“The ones who are simply just fentanyl are fairly simple to reverse but the problem is they mix it with far more toxic substances, and those people don’t respond as quickly, need higher doses or don’t respond at all,” Banerjee said.
According to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission’s 2021 report on fatal drug overdoses, fentanyl was the drug that caused the most deaths in the state.
