ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday the arrest of 18 people in a “criminal enterprise” being run out of a bar and restaurant.
Sheriff John Mina said the PR House Restaurant located in a small plaza at 7343 Lake Underhill Road in Orange County has “been the hotbed of criminal activity in that business for over 15 years.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the MBI, and the DEA initiated a new investigation with the goal of shutting down PR House for good this year, officials said.
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The restaurant “has been the scene of drug sales, shootings, overdose deaths, and even a homicide,” Mina said.
According to a news release, the owner of the restaurant Rosa Lopez, was charged with racketeering and operating a gambling house in 2001. Lopez was not only aware of the illegal drug trafficking but was actively directing the operations, Mina said.
In addition, in June 2016 there was a homicide in the parking lot of the restaurant and in January 2017 there was a shots fired call inside the business.
“In August and November 2017 there were overdose deaths of individuals at the bar and in 2022, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office investigated an overdose death in which it was alleged the source of the drugs was PR House,” a release stated.
Officials said the cocaine traffickers who sold out of PR House were armed with firearms during the time they sold the cocaine.
Ron Stucker, director of the MBI, said 60 to 80 people a day would enter the restaurant to buy cocaine.
“To give you an idea of the volume that they were selling, between June of 2021 and March of 2022, the sheriff’s office stopped 79 people coming out of PR House. Every one of them had cocaine on them,” Stucker said.
According to Mina, more than 9 kilos of cocaine, 13 firearms – two of which had the serial numbers removed – were seized during the investigation.
Officials said the 18 people arrested face charges ranging from racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and armed trafficking in cocaine.
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