Florida Dope Haul: Seized Heroin Packets Bear Donald Trump's Image

Authorities confiscated 5,500 packets in what they say is the biggest haul ever in Hernando County.
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Drug enforcement agents in Florida had a weird hail-to-the-chief moment when they seized 5,500 packets of heroin and discovered that some of them were stamped with President Donald Trump’s image and name.

It was the biggest drug haul ever in Hernando County, which lies on the western coast of central Florida. Other packets bore the names and faces of famous drug lords Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Pablo Escobar, the Bradenton Herald reported.

Florida’s attorney general said Friday that it was “a big mistake” to put the president’s face on the heroin. “He is gonna be our most fierce advocate in getting this junk off our streets,” said Pam Bondi, who is also a member of Trump’s transition team.

Bondi was entangled in a Trump campaign controversy last year after it was revealed that Trump’s foundation donated $25,000 to a pro-Bondi PAC and that Trump hosted a 2014 re-election fundraiser in her honor. Bondi received the financial boost while she was deciding whether to join a New York lawsuit charging fraud against Trump University. Florida ultimately did not join the suit. Trump later paid $25 million in restitution and penalties to settle three different lawsuits against his operation.

Bondi said Friday that she would give the president one of the heroin packets at the end of the case to put in the Oval Office to remind him of “all the good he’s doing.” She added: “I think the wall might get built a little faster,” noting that much of the heroin in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

The heroin packets were seized in a local post office following an eight-month investigation, said Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis. The probe was launched after a postal worker discovered an early shipment of heroin and alerted authorities. That’s when law enforcement began tracking the suspect, who was reportedly purchasing heroin in the northeast and having it shipped to Florida.

Kelvin Scott Johnson was arrested and faces charges of heroin trafficking, cocaine and heroin possession, and unlawful use of a two-way communication system, among other offenses, according to Neinhuis. He is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.

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