JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On a warm and cloudy September evening in Jacksonville, an FBI agent sat behind a computer and watched Paul Anderson Jr. walk out of a Jacksonville condo carrying a black satchel across his chest.
The agent watched closely as Anderson hopped in the driver’s side of a red Dodge Charger and left the complex on the city’s Westside.
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About four hours later, the FBI agent, using a live-streaming camera that had been mounted to a light pole in the parking lot, watched again as Anderson returned to the condo off Blanding Boulevard that investigators believed he was using as a stash house to store drugs.
Anderson, 31, pulled a large suitcase out of the car and walked back into the first-floor, two-bedroom condo.
According to a federal criminal complaint, Anderson had just met with his supplier to “re-up.”
For months, FBI agents and members of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office gang units watched Anderson, either by camping out in a car outside the condo or on the pole camera. They also tracked his phone. Investigators believed from September to October of 2023, they watched Anderson and other drug traffickers moving large amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and meth into the city.
During that time, investigators said Anderson met with other dealers in the parking lot of a Family Dollar and the parking lot of the condo complex. He also traveled to Turks and Caicos for three days in October for unknown reasons.
Anderson wasn’t the only one under surveillance. Agents were also watching his suspected supplier.
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On Sept. 27 just after 3 p.m., a week after Anderson was seen meeting with the suspected supplier, agents inside an SUV in the parking lot watched Anderson leave the condo, get into a Toyota Avalon and drive away. But he didn’t leave the gated complex.
Agents said he drove to the back of the complex and a few minutes later came back to the condo and pulled a large blue suitcase from the backseat.
The FBI agent who watched this then contacted another agent who was investigating Anderson’s suspected supplier. The agent said the suspected supplier’s geo-location data put him in the complex at the same time that Anderson drove to the other side of the complex parking lot.
According to the criminal complaint, a pole camera set up at the suspected supplier’s home showed him earlier packing a large blue suitcase into a car.
The agents appeared to catch a big break in the case earlier in the month thanks to a bag of trash.
On Sept. 6, a man believed to be a part of Anderson’s suspected drug trafficking organization walked out of the condo carrying a white trash bag. He put the bag in the trunk of a Chevrolet Malibu, drove to the trash compactor at the front of the complex and tossed it inside.
The FBI agent found the bag on top of the trash pile and opened it up.
Inside, according to the complaint, the agent found a blue and red rubber-like kilogram wrapper with drug residue, a large vacuum-sealed wrapper with drug residue that field-tested positive for fentanyl, a wrapper that field-tested positive for meth and multiple zipper sandwich baggies with a white powdery residue believed to be cocaine.
All of the video surveillance and evidence were used to get a search warrant, and on Oct. 20, Anderson’s suspected drug empire came crumbling down.
That morning, FBI agents and JSO detectives searched the suspected Westside stash house. Inside, investigators said they found what was believed to be 20 pounds of marijuana, 10 pounds of meth, 167 grams of fentanyl, 63 grams of cocaine, pills, three suitcases and drug processing equipment. Agents also detained the man who was seen with the white trash bag.
Miles away, in his Orange Park home on Leatherwood Drive -- a stone’s throw from Oakleaf High School -- investigators found Anderson that same morning.
Inside the home, investigators said they found four guns, a blue suitcase, a black satchel and $30,000 in cash.
Anderson was arrested and accused by the government of conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing meth.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced the arrest of Anderson and 13 others who are believed to be part of five drug trafficking organizations located in Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico. According to JSO, a drug organization in Puerto Rico was acting as the supply chain for the trafficking organizations.
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“Paul Anderson is a significant drug trafficker in our area and one of the targets of this operation. He is pending federal prosecution with our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Waters said.
Anderson’s arrest was part of a long-term narcotics investigation dubbed “Operation Players Club.”
This led to the following seizures:
- 26 firearms
- 118.53 pounds of methamphetamine (Street value of $663,768)
- 12.5 kilos of MDMA (Street value of $99,000)
- 7.5 kilos of powder cocaine (Street value of $150,000)
- 164.10 grams of crack cocaine (Street value of $16,410)
- 2.25 kilos of fentanyl (Street value of $121,500)
- 13.58 pounds of marijuana (Street value of $40,740)
- $239,273 – in cash
- 2023 Dodge Charger which was used for purposes of drug trafficking
“Operation Players Club stands as a major law enforcement achievement,” Waters said. “Still, we know that our community will not be able to arrest its way out of the narcotics problem. Nevertheless, this agency will work aggressively and continue to work aggressively to enforce the laws prohibiting the sale and distribution of illegal narcotics.
“We will never be able to quantify the lives that were saved by removing this poison from our streets,” Waters continued, “but unquestionably (thanks to) the excellent investigative work of the men and women of JSO and our law enforcement partners all over the southeast over the course of three months, our community enters a new year safer and more secure, and a lot of dope dealers are off the street.”
