METROPOLITAN BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2006

The Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) continued its mission to remove criminal organizations engaged in Narcotics, Vice and Organized Crime from Central Florida.  The MBI Task Force is a platform where local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies unite in a joint effort to combat these criminal organizations.  The MBI member agencies for the year 2006 included:  the State Attorney’s Office for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Orlando Police Department, Winter Park Police Department, Apopka Police Department, Ocoee Police Department, Eatonville Police Department, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (ABT), Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

During 2006, the Orlando metropolitan area experienced a rise in violent crime with a record number of homicides.  Investigators discovered that many of these violent crimes had a nexus to the illegal narcotics trade.  As a result, the interaction between MBI agents and Robbery/Homicide investigators increased significantly, with MBI agents providing information that assisted in solving such crimes as carjackings, robberies, and/or homicides in Orange, Osceola, Lake and Polk counties.  

At the same time, the MBI local, state, and federal agents continued to dismantle and disrupt numerous narcotics organizations operating in Central Florida.  Some of the highlighted investigations include Operation JY3, which was conducted by MBI, DEA, ICE, FDLE, OCSO, and OPD agents, which resulted in the dismantling of a Mexico to Florida cocaine smuggling organization responsible for distributing 378 Kilos of Cocaine over a two year period.  Operation Rolling Green was an investigation conducted by ICE, DEA, MBI, FDLE, and OCSO agents which targeted and dismantled a Vietnamese Narcotics Trafficking Organization that was involved in the distribution of Ecstasy in Orange, Hillsborough, and Flagler counties.  Operation Family Affair was yet another example of teamwork by law enforcement.  This investigation was conducted by agents with the MBI, OCSO, OPD, FDLE, DEA, ICE, FBI and Secret Service, targeting and dismantling an Apopka based drug trafficking organization that was distributing cocaine in West Orange County and engaged in identity theft schemes. During the course of the investigation agents discovered a local construction company owner, who had bilked millions of dollars from local home buyers and was using his business to launder money for narcotics dealers.  The construction company owner was subsequently arrested for Money Laundering.  Three additional operations began in 2006 involving the MBI, OCSO, OPD, FDLE, FBI, DEA, ICE, and ATF are still ongoing and will be discussed in the 2007 Executive Summary.

The Vice/Organized Crime Section, comprised of 15% of MBI’s investigators, completed a number of investigations directed at dismantling criminal organizations in the vice industry.  These MBI Racketeering/Money Laundering investigations focused on the organized prostitution trade by targeting escort services and illegal massage parlor criminal enterprises.  The investigations resulted in the closing of four (4) escort services and seven (7) massage parlors engaged in prostitution.  Many of these investigations, which are currently under review by State and Federal prosecutors, are not yet public and will be discussed in the 2007 Executive Summary after arrest warrants have been issued.

In addition to long term Racketeering investigations, the Vice/Organized Crime Section conducted routine vice maintenance operations directed at Adult Entertainment Establishments and at prostitutes who advertised on the internet and in the Orlando Weekly, a free local publication.   During monitoring of Adult Entertainment Establishments, agents discovered a number of employees and patrons of Club Harem and Crystal Cabaret were engaged in narcotics dealing inside the clubs.  Five (5) employees and two (2) patrons of Crystal Cabaret were charged with thirteen (13) felony counts of narcotics sales.  MBI agents assisted the Winter Park Police Department with their investigation of Club Harem, which resulted in charges against six (6) employees and three (3) patrons for twenty-eight (28) counts of illegal narcotics sales.  In recent years, twenty-five (25) employees of this particular chain of strip clubs have been arrested for illegal narcotics sales.  

In 1975, State Attorney Lawson Lamar envisioned and created the Organized Crime Strike Force; a small unit which was later renamed the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation Task Force (MBI), and expanded in 1978 to include the mission of narcotics and vice enforcement.  The MBI concept of law enforcement and state prosecutors working as a team in a multi-agency task force has proven highly successful and continues to make Central Florida a safer place to live and visit.

 

 

William Lutz
Director

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