DEA sting leads to arrest of suspected cocaine trafficker

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Federal drug agents in Orange County made an arrest after obtaining information about a cocaine trafficking suspect.

Court documents show Daniel "Flaco" Perez-Rivera told a confidential Drug Enforcement Agency informant he would get kilos of cocaine from Jacksonville and could bring them to central Florida.

Agents set up a sting and arranged to meet Perez-Rivera at a Latin restaurant on South Orange Blossom Trail, where a buyer would be waiting with $36,500 in cash.

At the last moment, however, Perez-Rivera asked the source to drive a few blocks to a tire repair business where he apparently worked, authorities said.

According to the DEA source, he and Perez-Rivera then drove together back to the restaurant to get the money, but agents were already waiting for them.

Once the agents swooped in, Perez-Rivera ran away, crossing several lanes of traffic, authorities said. He was later found hiding under a truck at a nearby Super 8 motel.

Agents said Perez-Rivera told them he and the source went to the shop to get a new tire, and he only rode to the restaurant so he "could hear the noise the bad tire was making."

But investigators said they found more than a kilo of cocaine in the car back at the restaurant.

Perez-Rivera is being held without bond at the Seminole County Jail. He has entered a not guilty plea and told investigators he knows nothing about the cocaine.

WFTV