Teddy bears stuffed with cocaine lead to 3 arrests

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Cocaine-stuffed teddy bears that were mailed from Puerto Rico to Jacksonville led to the arrests of three men, authorities said.

Edgar Ortiz Lopez, 28, Yaddiel Ortiz Lopez, 24, and Cassidy Martinez-Iglesias, 28, are charged with trafficking in cocaine and conspiring with another to traffic cocaine. Martinez-Iglesias also faces four counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The arrests were announced by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Director of Investigations Mike Bruno at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

In January, Bruno said, JSO was alerted in January by postal inspectors of a suspicious package heading to an apartment complex on Mayport Road. Bruno said it turned out to contain a teddy bear filled with 2 kilograms of cocaine and an electronic tracker.

Another package was mailed back to Puerto Rico, and that one contained cash, Bruno said.

According to Bruno, JSO was alerted to a third and then fourth package mailed from Puerto Rico to Jacksonville, and that fourth package held a teddy bear filled with 1 kilo of cocaine.

By then, according to Bruno, JSO had the three suspects under surveillance: Edgar and Yadiel Ortiz Lopez, who are brothers, and Martinez-Iglesias, who worked as a maintenance man at the Mayport Road apartment complex.

The Sheriff’s Office arrested all three on Feb. 23 and also seized a total of 5 kilos of cocaine, more than $130,000 in cash, four guns and a BMW.

According to DEA contacts, the 5 kilos of cocaine was likely a wholesale amount worth about $32,000 a kilo, but once it’s packaged for street distribution, the street value would be about $500,000 total.