Comment on Burglaries, lavish lifestyle and ’purple drank’: 10 sentenced in racketeering scheme

At first, investigators thought they’d found the man at the top of the chain in a racketeering scheme that burglarized nearly 60 pharmacies in Broward and Miami-Dade County from 2015 to 2016. Instead, they learned in the course of their investigation dubbed “Operation Purple Haze” that he, Darrish Martin, was a middle man in the scheme, and the man at the top was Miami music producer Harrison Garcia. Now, Garcia, Martin and eight other South Florida residents who committed the burglaries ultimately to sell the stolen drugs to Garcia, who then resold them, have each pled guilty and been sentenced for their role as of this week. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Friday the pleas and sentences of Alonzo Tillman Hinson, 31, of Miami Gardens; Bryan Anthony Pitter II, 33, of Miramar; Chantelle Ponce, 29, of Homestead; Raul Ponce Jr., 26, of Homestead; JonLuis Labadie, 27, of Miami; Joanky Labadie, 25, of Miami; Nereida Milagros Ortiz Almonte, 56, of Hialeah Gardens; and Ashley Alexandra Laguna, 25, of Hialeah Gardens, in addition to those of Martin, 31, of Pembroke Pines; and Garcia, 33, of Hialeah. Nearly 60 burglaries The nearly 60 burglaries at national pharmacy chains in Broward and Miami-Dade County between 2015 and 2016 were similar: Always multiple suspects, disguised in hooded jackets carrying backpacks, who pried open the business’s doors with a yellow crowbar and got away with the same loot of “a substantial amount” of hydrocodone, oxycodone and promethazine with codeine cough syrup, according to Martin’s probable cause affidavit. The cough syrup mixed with alcohol or sodas like Sprite and hard candy, like Skittles or Jolly Ranchers, is often known by the street nickname “lean” or “purple drank,” for its color, among other street names, and the use of the mixture has been promulgated by rappers. The burglaries were often committed within days of each other and on at least one occasion, two break-ins were on the same day, in less than an hour, the affidavit showed.