Latin Kings gang leaders among 21 arrested in Hillsborough drug operation, sheriff says

Two high-level leaders of the Latin Kings gang were among 21 people arrested in a monthslong investigation that resulted in the seizure of large amounts of fentanyl and other drugs in southern Hillsborough County, officials said Monday.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tampa office worked together on the investigation, dubbed Operation Checkmate, that led to the search of five homes in the Wimauma area last week, Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a news conference.

Among those arrested in the operation were Omar Bravo, 32, and Fidencio Robles, 30. Chronister called Robles “one of the top five ranking Latin Kings gang members in Florida” and said Bravo is the gang’s “head narcotics supplier for the entire state of Florida.”

The operation started about three months ago when detectives became aware of a drug distribution network operating in the Wimauma area, Chronister said. Undercover detectives started making street-level purchases and moved on to larger trafficking amounts of drugs.

“We focused our intelligence efforts on identifying the hierarchy of this violent and extremely profitable narcotics enterprise,” Chronister said.

Detectives and DEA agents on Thursday executed search warrants at five homes that Chronister said were being used as “storage and distribution points” by the Latin Kings for a drug operation that raked in “hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.” A sheriff’s office spokesperson said after the news conference that investigators estimated the operation was making $300,000 to $500,000 each month.

The searches yielded nearly $1 million worth of drugs including 5 kilograms, or roughly 11 pounds, of fentanyl; 2 kilograms, or more than 4 pounds, each of cocaine and methamphetamine; a kilogram of heroin; and 2 pounds of marijuana, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies also seized 15 firearms and multiple vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz and a BMW that officials said were bought with proceeds from drug sales.

“I am eager for our firearms lab to determine if there’s a nexus between these guns and the unsolved crimes the Latin Kings may have been involved with,” Chronister said.

Also seized were about 100 roosters that Chronister said were used in illegal cockfighting.

The operation also resulted in the seizure of what Chronister called a Latin Kings organizational chart and bylaws.

“There are very few of these copies in existence, and they are fiercely protected by the gang members,” the sheriff said.

Bravo was arrested Thursday at a home on the 17000 block of Carlton Branch Drive in Wimauma, booking records show. He faces charges of armed trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and amphetamine, among others.

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Records show that Bravo at the time of his arrest was out on bail after a previous arrest on charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, fleeing to elude law enforcement and resisting an officer without violence. He was being held without bail Monday.

Robles was arrested at a home on the 5300 block of Hillsborough Street in Wimauma, records show. Among the charges he faces are conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver, and illegally possessing a firearm as a felon.

The cases will be prosecuted by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office. Moody appeared at the news conference Monday along with DEA Special Agent in Charge Mike Ferguson.

The Latin Kings were formed in Chicago in the 1960s and has grown into one of the largest street gangs in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A 2012 Florida Department of Corrections report showed the gang by that point had the most members in the state prison system.