Deputies Seize a Kilogram of MDMA
Most drug busts that make the news or inspire the imaginations of screenwriters involve substances that the public would categorize as hard drugs. Police pound on the door, brandishing a search warrant, and by the time the search is finished, they have seized bags of some white powder that strikes fear in the hearts of parents. In Goodfellas, it was cocaine, and in Breaking Bad, it was meth. In real life, it is usually fentanyl, and the residents of the address that got searched were usually in the process of passing it off as oxycodone, heroin, or some other opioid, or else mixing it with whatever non-opioid drug happened to be on hand, just because it is so cheap and so addictive. You would not expect police to seize a kilogram, even though it happened in Florida at the end of last year. When we think of MDMA, we either think of it as a promising therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and drug addiction, as in, “medical MDMA is the new medical cannabis,” or else we think of it as a club drug that clubgoers too young to buy alcohol consume for relatively harmless fun. Back when cannabis was called weed or pot, MDMA was called ecstasy or E. It appeared in the form of tiny pills that made you want to dance all night and cuddle everyone. Those pills had to come from somewhere, and Jacksonville Sheriff’s deputies seem to have found a major source. Here, our Miami drug crimes defense lawyer explains how an alleged drug manufacturing operation managed to elude law enforcement until it didn’t.
The Events Leading Up to a Drug Bust
Your house might be full of drugs and drug paraphernalia. The police might drive past your house multiple times, perhaps even more than once in a single day, without noticing the drugs. Believe it or not, the law wants it to stay that way. What goes on in your house is your business. The police do not have the right to disturb it unless there is evidence that you are breaking the law. If they suspect you of selling or manufacturing drugs in your house, they cannot find this out for sure unless and until they get a search warrant. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against the search and seizure of private property by law enforcement without a warrant.
In December 2025, Jacksonville Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at a house where they believed the occupants were selling drugs. To get a warrant, a law enforcement agency must persuade a judge that there is evidence of a crime at a specific place. They must indicate which address they will search, what evidence they think they will find, and what evidence has already led them to believe that a search will yield more evidence. In the case of drug manufacturing operations, it is usually a wide variety of visitors, some of them repeat visitors, going to the house at odd hours. An informant may also tell police that he or she bought drugs from the house, or a tipster may call the police and claim to have witnessed drug activity.
In the December 2025 drug bust, it took a while to get the warrant and execute it, because the defendants kept moving around to different houses in the Jacksonville area. When the police executed the warrant, they found four pill presses, more than a kilogram of MDMA, and small quantities of cannabis, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
Two Families at Suspected Drug Manufacturing House Face Different Fates
Besides the drugs and the pill presses, deputies found two fathers and two sons. They arrested a man in his 60s and his son, who was in his 30s. They also arrested another man in his 30s, who was in the house with his minor child. All three defendants are facing charges for drug possession with intent to distribute. The father of the child is also facing charges for child neglect. You can get charged with child neglect simply for bringing a child who is under your care into a house where illegal drugs are present, even if no children have suffered physical harm because of the drugs or because the adults supervising them are under the influence of drugs.
Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys
A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for drug possession after officers execute a search warrant. Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.
Source:
cbs12.com/news/local/florida-father-and-son-arrested-as-police-dismantle-pill-press-organization-florida-news-december-19-2025
