LAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA— A multi-agency investigation culminated in the arrest of more than three dozen people from Lake and Volusia counties last week —and only Inside Lake covered the first arrest of the main target in April.
“Operation Daly Dose” targeted the Drew Daly drug trafficking organization that was responsible for distributing multiple kilos of the deadly drug fentanyl in both Lake and Volusia counties, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Tuesday, alongside Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell.
Chitwood said the organization was distributing six to eight kilos of fentanyl across both counties each month since at least August 2022. More than 2,300 grams—1.5 million doses— of fentanyl were seized, along with 53 grams of black tar heroin, 138 grams of cocaine, 423 grams of methamphetamine, 43 grams of MDMA, 180 opioid pills, 11 firearms and more than $100,000 in cash and assets.
Around two dozen defendants were taken into custody last week after nine search warrants were executed across DeLand and Orange City last week. Charges include but are not limited to armed trafficking in fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA. One “stash house” had drugs hidden in trees so they would not be found inside the house if the house was hit with a search warrant, Chitwood said.
Daly, 29, of Paisley, is facing multiple charges, along with his girlfriend Lauren Toce, who was charged with child neglect in 2020 after a child in her care suffered a drug overdose. While incarcerated for a violation of probation in that case, Toce conspired with Daly and his brother Patrick Daly to attempt to smuggle cocaine and Xanax into the Volusia County Branch Jail; their efforts were intercepted.
In April, only Inside Lake reported Drew Daly’s first arrest in Lake County after he was found with 144 grams of fentanyl on a traffic stop in the DeLand area of Lake County. He was arrested for trafficking in the deadly drug and released a few days later on $100,000 bond. He was arrested again Thursday on a slew of charges and is now being held on more than $3 million bond.
“The agencies you see represented up here today are going to continue to attack this problem from an enforcement level,” Grinnell said. “But we need our parents and grandparents out there to talk to their kids and their grandkids about the dangers of this fentanyl.”
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