Efforts
to confront a heroin problem in Central Florida have gone viral after a
local police department released a commercial featuring officers
dressed in gear that resembled that if the Islamic State group, the
Miami New Times reported
Monday. The new anti-drug ad from the Lake County Sheriff's Office
includes the department's top officer delivering a stern message to drug
dealers while he is flanked by ski mask-clad officers, similar to many
of videos that have been released by ISIS over the years.
"To
the dealers that are pushing this poison, I have a message for you:
We’re coming for you," he Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell
said threateningly.
"As a matter of fact, our undercover agents have already bought heroin
from many of you. We are simply awaiting the arrest warrants to be
finalized."
Grinnell continued speaking to apparent criminals who he said have already been selected as targets.
"Enjoy
trying to sleep at night, wondering if tonight’s the night our SWAT
team blows your front door off the hinges. We are coming for you," he
added.
The
new ad came amid a crackdown statewide by local law enforcement to
combat the growing opioid epidemic that has also widely affected the
rest of the country. Most efforts have targeted those selling the
illicit drug.
"We
had officers and deputies who were kind of seeing that we could nab the
drug dealers, Dan Faggard, of the State Attorney’s Office in Seminole
County, told
local news outlet Fox 35 last month. "It really wasn’t that useful not
too long ago because our heroin problem here in central Florida is kind
of a recent thing."
Heroin use is the U.S. has increased dramatically as of late, especially among white people, according to a report released last month in the JAMA Psychiatry journal.
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