{"id":264874,"date":"2026-05-09T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264874\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:37:07","slug":"fort-pierce-man-arrested-in-dea-led-fentanyl-trafficking-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264874\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce man arrested in DEA-led fentanyl trafficking investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 A Fort Pierce man accused of trafficking large amounts of fentanyl is now facing federal prosecution after a long-term DEA and St. Lucie County narcotics investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives with the <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/search?find=St%20lucie%20county\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> Special Investigations Division arrested 58-year-old Heriberto Ortiz on Tuesday without incident following what investigators described as an extensive probe into the trafficking of ounce quantities of fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz is expected to face federal prosecution in the case and remains held at the St. Lucie County Jail, per SLCSO.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/chris-hansen-to-catch-a-predator-take-down-joins-martin-county-deputies-in-arresting-6-men-during-child-predator-sting-south-florida-treasure-coast-crime-news-martin-county-sheriffs-office\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chris Hansen joins Martin County deputies in arresting 6 men during child predator sting<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stlucieclerk.gov\/public-search-gen\/search-court-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Court records<\/a> show Ortiz was previously arrested in 2022 on accusations of sale, delivery, or possession with intent to sell or deliver fentanyl, as well as unlawful use of a two-way communications device. <\/p>\n<p>However, those charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you choose to traffic fentanyl or any illegal drugs in St. Lucie County, you picked the wrong county,\u201d Sheriff Richard Del Toro said in a statement. \u201cWe will find you, arrest you, and pursue the toughest prosecution possible. We will not tolerate poison in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A Fort Pierce man accused of trafficking large amounts of fentanyl is now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-264874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}