MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Law enforcement officers in Martin County are calling a fentanyl bust this week their biggest ever.
K-9 Nitro just finished training in March and is now part of the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
On Tuesday afternoon, Nitro was with his handler, Sgt. Christian Crandall, as part of a traffic stop near the Stuart exit off Florida's Turnpike, when he sensed something.
"He's walking around the car, you'll see a head snap," Crandall said. "He'll put his nose on the seam and just leave it there."
Nitro alerted his handler about what appeared to be wrapped birthday presents in the back of the vehicle. It turned out to be about 20,000 fentanyl pills.
"I have noticed this trend where it seems to be getting more dangerous every year," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.
Snyder said for years that Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike, the major roadways between Miami and Central Florida, have been used to move drugs. Now, the stakes have gotten bigger.
About 10,000 fentanyl pills were seized four months ago, which at the time was deemed by law enforcement as the largest bust in Martin County.
"There is so much of this poison moving through our county," Snyder said.
The sheriff said there are no guarantees to what's being sold on the streets.
"It presents a clear and present danger to the end user," Snyder said. "That person who goes out and buys one of these pills, takes it, may do fine the first time. His friend takes it and dies."
This bust comes in the same week that a person was arrested for attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the Martin Correctional Institution.
"You'd have a few ounces of this drug inside the prison … even more dangerous," Snyder said.
A bill in Florida recently passed enhances penalties for those who expose first responders to deadly narcotics.
"Recently we have increased the minimum mandatory penalties for trafficking in fentanyl," state Rep. John Snyder, R-Stuart, said.
Arrested in this case was Fabrizio Andara, 42, of Kissimmee. He's being held without bond.
