METROPOLITAN BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2003
The Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) in Central Florida is believed to be the
longest-running task force of its kind in the nation. Founded in
1978, the 12-agency task force investigates
narcotics, vice, and organized crime with a team con
sistingof
local, state and federal agents and two assigned state prosecutors,
and hasnowreached its 25th Anniversary. The MBI cooperative approach to law enforcement has fostered increased
teamwork among law enforcement agencies working together to
dismantle criminal narcotics and vice organizations that frequently
cross jurisdictional boundaries. Historically, many such task
forces have come and gone, but the MBI has been an
effective and long-lasting task force, because dedicated agents and
civilian personnel are selected by home agencies and assigned to the
task force and those personnel have a reputation as team players.
Additionally, the MBI Governing Board made up
of the State Attorney, the two Sheriffs, and four Chiefs of Police
act as the ultimate Law Enforcement Team and direct the task force
operations for the good of the entire Central Florida area.
Part of the recipe for a great community is to keep organized illegal vice operations out of Central Florida. The
importance of the MBI mission to remove illegal vice
operations is sometimes 
misunderstood
and perceived as an unimportant use of law enforcement resources
without a historical perspective. In the early 1970’s, the vice
industry overwhelmed Central Florida with out-of-control strip bars,
adult theaters, adult bookstores, sex peep show arcades, live nude
shows, lingerie dancing rooms, illegal body scrub parlors, illegal
massage parlors, literally hundreds of prostitution escort services
and adult entertainment businesses that moved into commercial areas
near many residential neighborhoods. During that period of time,
certain roads and areas of Orange County, Florida developed a sleazy
reputation and the MBI was created and charged with
the task to change that reputation. Since then, the MBI has spent 25 years applying criminal prosecution and often legal
pressure on the vice industry, resulting in a significant reduction
of the illegal vice industry in our community. The Orlando and
Orange County, Florida areas now have a reputation throughout the
world as being a wholesome, family-oriented and tourist-friendly
community – a positive reputation that is not by chance, but the
result of continued law enforcement efforts supported by city/county
government officials and the public consistently saying “no” to
illegal vice organizations.
Only .003% of Orange County law enforcement and approximately 15% of
MBI personnel are assigned to remove illegal vice operations from
Central Florida. Examples of success in vice enforcement
operations in 2003 include the conclusion of the Rachel’s
Men’s Clubs investigations. In a settlement agreement with
the Office of Statewide Prosecution in Tallahassee, Florida,
the corporations that operated Rachel’s Men’s Clubs pled guilty to racketeering, were placed on 6 years probation, and
agreed to pay a fine of $620,000. The Rachel’s Men’s Club in Casselberry, Florida was closed as an adult entertainment
business for two years, as a result of crimes uncovered by the
investigation. In addition, 30 employees and sub-contractors,
including 2 general managers, 4 managers, and 2 supervisors pled guilty or no contest to violations ranging from
racketeering, trafficking in cocaine,
sale of ecstasy, sale of GHB, sale of cannabis, prostitution, and
lewdness. Follow-up inspections of Rachel’s Men’s Clubs have, thus far, not uncovered evidence of the same types of
illegal activity.
In another successful MBI investigation
that was initiated to assist the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office,
the arrests for prostitution-related charges were made and the owner
of the Boardroom Men’s Club massage parlor and
employees pled to charges that ranged from racketeering to
prostitution and agreed to pay a $70,000 fine and keep the business
closed.
As a result of charges brought by the MBI Vice and Organized Crime
Section, the unlicensed adult bookstore Video Expose also agreed to close, and the owner and several managers of the
business pled 
to
32 counts of obscenity and agreed to pay a $29,000 fine. Another
unlicensed adult bookstore operation called Jerry’s General Store, remains a focus of extensive court proceedings. The operators have
been charged with offenses related to racketeering, obscenity, grand
theft of sales tax, filing false tax returns, and operating an
unlicensed adult bookstore in a neighborhood protected from such
adult entertainment establishments. The MBI vice
enforcement efforts also continue to discourage illegal escort
services and massage parlors (often supported in advertising in a
free distribution newspaper called the Orlando Weekly) from
re-establishing themselves in Orange County.
Concerning narcotics enforcement, historically,
the MBI has been charged to investigate and dismantle mid-level narcotics organizations before they become too well
financed and established. Central Florida is one of the few areas
in the State that has such a specialized effort focused at mid-level
narcotics distributors.
During the past 25 years, the MBI and assisting agencies have seized $37,144,877, narcotics valued at $151,370,835, and have experienced a series of
narcotics trends in the process. In the late 1970’s, the importation
of cocaine increased, as cocaine was no longer just
accessible for the “elite” Hollywood 
and
jet-setter population. The increased cocaine use occurred despite
the high price of a kilogram of cocaine that, at that time, was
$65,000 a kilogram, compared to the current today’s price of $23,000
a kilogram. The abuse of cocaine increased even further during the
mid-1980’s with the advent of cheap and highly addictive, crack
cocaine, sold at the street level for as little as $10 a
dosage. Meanwhile, marijuana or cannabis has remained
a constantly abused illegal drug over the last 25 years that
formerly sold for $350 a pound (in the early 1980’s) and now is much
more potent and sells for $1,000 a pound. In the early 1980’s,
another trend, PCP started to disappear from Central Florida,
as the volatile drug developed the negative reputation of being
particularly dangerous to use. In another positive step, new strict
minimum-mandatory sentencing laws were established for quaalude (ludes)
distribution in the early 1980’s and for rohypnol (roofies)
in the late 1990’s, which resulted in those illegal drugs virtually
disappearing from the drug scene. On the negative side, the late
1990’s was marked by the return of a more potent form of heroin,
causing a significant rise in heroin fatalities. In the early part
of 2000, Methamphetamine abuse showed an increase in Central
Florida although, presently, the abuse is confined to only a few
areas in the community.
Enforcement by the MBI Narcotics
Section during 2003 continued to be very successful, with a 13%
increase in drug trafficking arrests. Drug traffickers
receive a minimum mandatory sentence of from three to twenty-five
years. Approximately 85% of the MBI’s staff are assigned to narcotics enforcement.
Highlighted investigations include Operation “What’s Up G”,
an investigation that dismantled a 15-member GHB organization, as well as a GHB laboratory that was being
operated in East Orange County that supplied GHB, a drug sometimes
used as a date rape drug, to local university students and customers
in downtown clubs.
The MBI was also involved in “Operation Lockdown” which was another narcotics
investigation that attracted widespread community interest. The
investigation by MBI, FBI, FDLE and Orange County Corrections
Internal Affairs agents was directed at several Orange County
Corrections officers that were alleged to be helping smuggle drugs to inmates in the Orange County Corrections
facility. The smuggling was controlled by an inmate who had been
incarcerated for trafficking in Heroin by the MBI and
assisting agencies, and who was the President of the Florida
Latin Kings street gang. The subsequent investigation resulted
in two separate narcotics arrests of Orange County Corrections
officers.
MBI and federal agencies narcotics
agents continue to pursue investigations concerning the Jorge
Farah organization, called Operation Catchstretch,
and have identified the location of 19.5 million dollars in drug proceeds and other assets used in an effort to wash
the drug proceeds. In cooperation with the United States
Attorney and other federal agencies, efforts are being made to
recover those drug proceeds. MBI narcotics agents and
DEA agents also concluded 2003 by closing in on a large crystal
methamphetamine (“Ice”) organization in Operation
Ice Down. Twelve of approximately thirty personnel
in the organization have been arrested so far.
In conclusion, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) remains committed to each component of its motto; “integrity, perseverance and investigative excellence” to keep Central Florida an area as free as possible of illegal vice and narcotics organizations, and to help Central Florida maintain a reputation as one of the cleanest metropolitan areas in the country.
William
A. Lutz, Director
Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI)
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