Six Flagler Residents Among 9 Sentenced to Federal Prison in Conclusion of Multi-State Drug-Trafficking Conspiracy

The United States Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida has announced that all nine individuals charged as a result of “Operation Ice Man” have been sentenced to prison. Each defendant was found guilty by a jury or pleaded guilty for their role in a multi-state drug trafficking conspiracy that spanned from Mexico to California, Arizona, central Florida, and Flagler County.

The two-year local, state, and federal investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Daytona Beach Resident Agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, the Daytona Beach Police Department, and the DeLand Police Department.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and U.S. Attorney Roger B. Hanberg announced the results of the investigation during a May 2023 press conference. (See: “9 Arrested on Federal Indictments in Phoenix-to-Palm Coast Drug Pipeline.”)

“After much hard work over two years, these poison peddlers are off the streets and into federal prison where they belong,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “This case was the largest Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) investigation the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has ever been involved in. I want to commend everyone that was involved in dismantling this DTO which had ties to a Mexican Cartel. I especially want to thank U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg and his team of prosecutors for putting these major drug traffickers in prison for many years to come.”

at the 2023 press conference, Handberg had said: “Of the eight defendants who’ve been arrested, six of them are facing up to life in federal prison. The other two defendants are facing up to 40 years ago prison.” A chart provided at the time showed that five defendants would face minimums of 10 years in prison up to life, one faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20, and two faced minimum mandatory sentences of five years and maximums of 40. In fact, the eight defendants for whom sentencing information was released will average 6 years and a few months in prison. They were sentenced on a range of just under three years to 10 years. None is facing life in prison.

Six of the nine individuals are Flagler County residents. The Sheriff’s Office provided this chart–of eight rather than nine individuals–with their sentences: