2 NC men accused in plot to traffic fentanyl across US-Mexico border to pay cartels

Florida authorities arrested two central North Carolina men accused of planning to traffic fentanyl into Florida from Mexico, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a press release posted on Friday.

Sheriff Grady Judd said during an undercover operation, his detectives seized more than 11 pounds of fentanyl, which is enough to kill 2.7 million people.

Mario Alberto Castro Solache, 23, from Raleigh, and Pedro Mondragon, 27, from Lillington, were both charged with conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl.

Authorities accused the men's supplier of using money gained from selling fentanyl to pay off two different Mexican cartels: the La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Detectives began investigating drug sales last month when they received information that an international drug trafficking organization was trafficking multiple kilograms of fentanyl from Mexico to Bradenton, Florida, and then into Polk County. Based off that information, according to a press release, they sent detectives undercover to arrange the purchase of $24,000 of the drug from a local supplier.

The sheriff's office said they began buying fentanyl from Ignacio Rodriguez, 28, from Bradenton. He told the undercover officers that the drugs were from Mexico, according to the release.

Detectives bought a second stash of fentanyl from Rodriguez, the release said, this time for $60,000. Two kilograms of fentanyl was in a Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal box and the other three kilograms was in a yellow Igloo cooler, according to the sheriff's office.

The sheriff's office said Rodriguez knew the severity and risk that came along with doing fentnyal. He warned them to be careful "or they might overdose," according to a release.

On Oct. 11, Solache and Mondragon met up with detectives in Florida for a sale and expressed their suppliers' interest in expanding operations in Polk County, Florida.

The pair were arrested on Oct. 12 in Florida.

Mondragon bonded out of jail about a week after he was booked.

Solache, however, did not have the proper papers to be in the country, according to the sheriff's office. He is currently being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Polk County Detention Center in Florida.

"This poison is coming into the country across the border from Mexico, and we are going to continue our investigation into the Mexican drug cartels who are killing innocent people," Judd said.