The Collier County Sheriff's Office executed one of its largest drug busts in 2023. Now, a year later, deputies arrested a man in connection to the supply of 10,000 fentanyl-laced pills.
Jose Manuel Pereyorosello, 35, of Panama City, is in the Collier County jail and faces a charge of trafficking fentanyl of 28 grams or more.
According to a release from CCSO, Pereyorosello is accused of supplying more than 10,000 fentanyl-laced pills disguised as prescription painkillers.
"Our investigations don’t end with the arrests of the dealers and the buyers; we’re going after the suppliers too," Sheriff Rambosk said.
After a yearlong investigation, detectives said they determined Pereyorosello supplied the 10,634 fentanyl pills that detectives seized during a search warrant at a Golden Gate Estates home on June 27, 2023.
Detectives also arrested the couple who lived at the residence on fentanyl trafficking charges.
CCSO said the seized fentanyl weighed 2.37 pounds (1,063.4 grams), which is enough to kill 531,500 people.
That's more than the entire population of Collier County.
Detectives said the fentanyl pills were imprinted with "M" and "30" to resemble prescription "30 M" oxycodone hydrochloride 30 mg pills.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, criminal networks increasingly disguise fentanyl by mixing it into pills designed to mimic prescription painkillers.
At the time, Rambosk called it one of the largest seizures of fentanyl in CCSO’s history and praised Vice and Narcotics detectives for an "extraordinary investigation" that prevented 10,000 potentially lethal pills from making its way into Collier County.
Detectives continued to investigate before obtaining a warrant for Pereyorosello's arrest.
CCSO said they tracked him to Bay County, where he was taken into custody before being extradited to Collier County this week.
Pereyorosello is currently being held in the Collier County jail on no bond.
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