NEIGHBOR ON ROOF HELPS COPS BUST ALLEGED HEROIN DEALERS

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ORLANDO, Fla. —

Detectives in disguise swarmed an Orlando neighborhood to stop suspected heroin traffickers. One drug agent dressed up as a FedEx delivery driver when they conducted the bust earlier this week.

 

WFTV spoke with a neighbor who helped out in the bust. He said, if it hadn't been for him, the suspected drug traffickers who were living in the home might still be on the run.

 

Matthew Frazier said he was able to see from his roof what investigators couldn't. Frazier was on his roof with a high-tech telescope the day state agents arrested Alexander Quintero-Cardenas and Sergio Atehortua-Taborda.

 

They lived in the home behind his and are accused of using the vacant home next door to traffic heroin.

 

"They didn't have the chopper in the area yet, so basically I was their eyes," he said.

 

The investigation started in Miami with a package that came into the port from Columbia. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers found more than 28 grams of heroin hidden inside a clock. Investigators said it was being shipped to a vacant home on Groveland Avenue off of Curry Ford Road in Orlando.

 

So, investigators set up surveillance around the home and an undercover officer made the FedEx delivery. The investigators said they watched as one of the suspects hopped a fence to get to the vacant home next door, then they walked around to the front, picked up the package of drugs, and that's when investigators moved in.

 

"I actually saw one of the gentlemen going over the fence in the back, and I was able to point that out. I believe he was the first one they caught," Frazier said.

 

The suspects tried to convince investigators they had no idea the 28 grams of heroin was inside the package. Both were charged with trafficking and, if found guilty, they may go to prison for more than 25 years.

 

"I live here and take care of my 86-year-old mother, and to know that kind of hardcore narcotics was going on scared the heck out of me," he said.

 

The suspects are in the Orange County jail on $500,000 bond.