ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — With Florida's new prescription pill database and the crackdown on the distribution of powerful pain pills on the streets of Orange County, it appears the street drug heroin is making a comeback.
Todd Dixon of the Center for Drug Free Living said heroin had somewhat fallen off the radar when prescription pills took over as the drug of choice in the last decade.
“We're starting to see it creep back into the individuals coming to us for treatment,” Dixon said. “They're not going to heroin, not because they want to, necessarily. It's because it's what's available."
In fact, recently, the Drug Enforcement Agency task force in Orange County arrested Jose Jorge and Julian Gil on charges that they tried to bring in more than a kilogram of heroin.
Investigators said heroin suppliers in New York concealed the drugs inside a gift-wrapped package and then stuffed them into a Victoria’s Secret bag that they delivered to a police informant.
Investigators then gave the drugs to another informant in Orlando. When Jorge and Gil picked up the bag in the parking lot of an Olive Garden off Orange Blossom Trail, investigators arrested them.
And police said Jorge talked to an informant about bringing four more kilograms in to the city.
Dixon said he isn't surprised to hear about people trying to bring heroin into Central Florida.
“Heroin is an opiate, as are drugs like to OxyContin," he said.
WFTV
