The leader of a Central Florida fentanyl drug dealing gang has been sentenced to prison.
During a hearing this month, defendant Javoris Edwards entered pleas in two different drug cases. He pled no contest to two counts of Trafficking in Fentanyl 28 grams or more, Conspiracy to Traffic in Fentanyl 28 grams or more and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
These cases were part of Operation Empire, which was an investigation carried out by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Investigation and East Side Volusia Narcotics Task Force with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Attorney’s Office. Edwards was identified as the leader of the fentanyl trafficking organization that operated out of a South Daytona Beach home, which was mixing a dangerous animal tranquilizer, xylazine, into the Fentanyl it was selling.
“A dangerous drug dealer has been removed from the street,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case. “His days of peddling death are over.”
“It’s a constant fight to investigate, identify and arrest the dealers putting deadly fentanyl out into our community,” Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “Today there’s one less of them out there, thanks to the detectives, agents and prosecutors who never give up the fight.”
Assistant State Attorney Dan Jancha successfully prosecuted the case for the state. The Honorable Karen Foxman presided over the case and pronounced sentence.
