ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Eleven people have been indicted in what Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain said Wednesday was the successful dismantling of a fentanyl-peddling street gang, effaced from Orange County with help from the sheriff’s office and Orlando police.
Flanked by prosecutors, law enforcement and the families of people who died overdosing on fentanyl allegedly sold by members of the gang “Respect, Money Structure, Everybody Killer,” aka RMS/EBK, Bain said that the 37-count Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) indictment issued by a grand jury in the case cannot be understated in its importance.
Bain said the operation began in September 2023 when an Orlando Police Department detective spoke to a Violent Crimes Unit prosecutor about a defendant they were prosecuting who may be part of an organized street gang.
“Together, they identified the scope of the criminal enterprise. They quickly learned that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was also targeting members of the same gang and brought them into the operation. The operation officially ended last Wednesday with this indictment,” Bain said. “(...) RICO laws allow us to dismantle criminal organizations by not just targeting individuals or individual crimes, but the entire structure that supports and perpetrates them.”
The state attorney said the RICO laws help disrupt “the network that fuels these illegal activities and involves the violence that harms our community on a regular basis.”
Three counts in the indictment address death caused by the unlawful distribution of fentanyl, one count concerns racketeering, another claims conspiracy to commit racketeering and another addresses directing the activities of a street gang, among other counts including drug trafficking and illegal firearm sales and possession, Bain said.
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Bain was joined at the state attorney’s office along North Orange Avenue in Orlando by Orange County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Carlos Torres and Anne Wedge-McMillen, Orange-Osceola assistant state attorney.
Wedge-McMillen said that the defendants’ actions directly caused the deaths of Carlos Pena, Noah Polanco, and Samuel Fredrick through the delivery of fentanyl disguised as other pills, what she said inspired the name of the 10-month operation, “Dirty 30s.”
“The young men who lost their lives did not know that they were buying fentanyl. They thought that they were buying hydrocodone. These were fake pills that were pressed to look identical to oxycodone or Percocet pills. Not a single person here knew that they were buying fentanyl and not a single person here had any desire to die,” Wedge-McMillen said. “The families are standing with us today to show you who their loved ones are and who their loved ones were and to unite with other people in the community who may have also lost loved ones to this organization and to organizations like this. All defendants now are in custody.”
Bain asked listeners whose loved ones or who themselves may have been a victim of the gang to contact Orlando police at 321-235-5300 or the sheriff’s office at 407-836-4357.
Watch Wednesday’s news conference again by clicking here.
The defendants and their charges are as follows:
- Count 1: Murder (Death Caused) by the Unlawful Distribution of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Jeremiah Maldonado
- Count 2: Murder (Death Caused) by the Unlawful Distribution of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Benjamin Rivard
- Count 3: Murder (Death Caused) by the Unlawful Distribution of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 4: Racketeering
- Defendants: Jeremiah Maldonado, Benjamin Rivard, Christian Roux-Rey, Paul Jacas, Olivia Goen, Brenden Haven-Gault
- Count 5: Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering
- Defendants: Jeremiah Maldonado, Zaviar Kidd, Benjamin Rivard, Christian Roux-Rey, Rebecca Murray, Paul Jacas, Carlos Yandel Carrasquill Rodriguez, Elena Falzone, Olivia Goen, Brenden Haven-Gault
- Count 6: Directing the Activities of a Gang
- Defendants: Christian Roux-Rey
- Count 7: Trafficking in 28 Grams or More Fentanyl
- Defendants: Benjamin Rivard, Eliamne Rodriguez
- Count 8: Trafficking in 14 Grams but Less Than 28 Grams of FentanylDefendants: Christian Roux-Rey
- Count 9: Trafficking in 14-28 Grams of Methamphetamine
- Defendants: Zaviar Kidd
- Count 10: Possession of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Zaviar Kidd
- Count 11: Trafficking in 28 Grams or More Fentanyl
- Defendants: Benjamin Rivard
- Count 12: Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Benjamin Rivard
- Count 13: Own, Lease, or Rent Any Place, Structure, Trailer or Conveyance with Knowledge That It Will Be Used for the Sale of Controlled Substances
- Defendants: Zaviar Kidd, Brenden Haven-Gault
- Count 14: Delivery of Controlled Substance Within 1,000 Feet of a School
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 15: Possession of Controlled Substance Within 1,000 Feet of an Assisted Living Facility
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 16: Own, Lease, or Rent Any Place, Structure, Trailer or Conveyance with Knowledge That It Will Be Used for the Sale of Controlled Substances
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 17: Delivery Fentanyl
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 18: Delivery Fentanyl
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 19: Trafficking in 4 Grams or More of Dangerous Fentanyl or Fentanyl Analogues While Armed
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 20: Trafficking in 14 Grams or More but Less than 28 Grams of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 21: Delivery Fentanyl
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
- Count 22: Trafficking in 14 Grams or More of Dangerous Fentanyl or Fentanyl Analogues While Armed
- Defendants: Paul Jacas, Carlos Yandel Carrasquill Rodriguez
- Count 23: Possession of a Firearm by a Person Found to have Committed a Delinquent Act
- Defendants: Carlos Yandel Carrasquill Rodriguez
- Count 24: Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 25: Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 26: Possession of Ammunition by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 27: Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 28: Delivery Fentanyl
- Defendants: Elena Falzone
- Count 29: Trafficking 4 Grams or More but Less Than 14 Grams of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
- Count 30: Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon
- Defendants: Paul Jacas
- Count 31: Trafficking 4 Grams or More but Less Than 14 Grams of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
- Count 32: Trafficking in 28 Grams or More Fentanyl
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
- Count 33: Own, Lease, or Rent Any Place, Structure, Trailer or Conveyance with Knowledge That It Will Be Used for the Sale of Controlled Substances
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
- Count 34: Conspiracy to Traffic in 28 Grams or More of Fentanyl
- Defendants: Jeremiah Maldonado, Zaviar Kidd, Benjamin Rivard, Christian Roux-Rey, Rebecca Murray, Paul Jacas, Carlos Yandel Carrasquill Rodriguez, Elena Falzone, Olivia Goen, Brenden Haven-Gault
- Count 35: Use of a Two-Way Communication Device to Facilitate or Further the Commission of a Felony
- Defendants: Jeremiah Maldonado, Zaviar Kidd, Benjamin Rivard, Christian Roux-Rey, Rebecca Murray, Eliamne Rodriguez, Paul Jacas, Elena Falzone, Olivia Goen, Brenden Haven-Gault
- Count 36: Use of a Two-Way Communication Device to Facilitate or Further the Commission of a Felony
- Defendants: Paul Jacas, Carlos Yandel Carrasquill Rodriguez, Elena Falzone, Olivia Goen
- Count 37: Use of a Two-Way Communication Device to Facilitate or Further the Commission of a Felony
- Defendants: Olivia Goen
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