Heroin is at the center of our nation’s latest drug addiction epidemic, with use of the drug skyrocketing from coast to coast. As many opiate rehab Florida centers struggle to keep up with the rising demand from addicts all over the country in need of help, a JetBlue flight attendant has been caught smuggling heroin into Florida from Columbia.
Carla Michelle Alvarado Caught Smuggling Drugs
The flight attendant, 33-year-old Carla Michelle Alvarado, was busted smuggling more than two pounds of heroin into Orlando from Columbia as part of an ongoing drug smuggling arrangement that she had with a friend, Jorge Luis Alomar. Alvarado shaped the heroin into pellets, disguised them to look like chocolate candies, and then concealed them in a body suit she wore underneath her flight attendant’s uniform during a flight from Bogotá, Colombia to Orlando, Florida. Alvarado’s accomplice, Jorge Luis Alomar, paid her $10,000 for delivering the heroin to him in the States.
It’s heroin-smuggling operations like these that make the heroin epidemic that is gripping our nation possible. If there were no heroin available, opiate rehab Florida programs wouldn’t be full to capacity.
Federal agents working with the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration were tipped off that a flight attendant aboard the JetBlue flight was smuggling heroin into the country. They searched every member of the crew, but found drugs only on Alvarado. She pleaded guilty before a federal court, and agreed to help the feds set up a sting to catch Alomar. Alvarado completed the transfer of the drugs as previously agreed, allowing federal agents to nab Alomar.
DEA agents searched Alomar’s home, where they found a further 165 grams of heroin stashed beneath the carpet under a dresser, and an additional 55 grams of heroin hidden in a bathroom ceiling vent. Alomar also pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin.
Thanks to federal agents, these are 220 grams of heroin that won’t be on the streets. Perhaps this bust will ease the burden of opiate rehab Florida programs throughout the state.
The Heroin Epidemic Is Not Sparing Opiate Rehab Florida Programs
As heroin use rates reach epidemic levels across the country, no region is spared. From the rural Midwest to bucolic Vermont, to major metropolitan areas throughout the nation, heroin use rates are on the rise. South Florida is no exception. Since 2012 alone, heroin overdose rates have almost doubled.
In 2011, there were just 62 heroin related deaths in all of Florida. But in 2012, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that there are 117 heroin-related deaths in the state. Heroin “hot spots” in Florida include Jacksonville, Sarasota and Orlando, according to the Miami Herald.
Our opiate rehab Florida program is struggling to keep up with the influx of new patients. It doesn’t help that these days, heroin is more addictive than ever before. The newly-potent heroin finding its way into the States – and into the veins of heroin addicts – is a purer, more potent form of the drug that comes from South America, not from Mexico, like the “black tar” heroin that has been popular in past years.
Heroin laced with fentanyl is of particular danger to people in need of our opiate rehab Florida program. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is vastly more potent than heroin, and that makes the drug up to 100 times more addictive. Not only does cutting heroin with fentanyl make it more potent, but it also makes it much more deadly. Fentanyl-laced heroin has been linked to dozens of overdose deaths in recent weeks.
Rising heroin use rates and the prevalence of potent, fentanyl-laced heroin is making opiate rehab programs in Flroida more essential than ever. Our opiate rehab Florida program saves lives; that’s all there is to it. If there’s one thing the recent tragic death of the gifted actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has made clear, it’s that opiate addiction is a deadly illness that does not discriminate. It kills the rich and famous and the poor and obscure alike.
If you or someone you know is addicted to heroin, call our Florida rehab now at 833-596-3502 to find out how we can help you.
