Tag: florida

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office seizes enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 million

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced a drug bust they say contained enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 million adults.

“JSO Narcotics Unit seized 3 kilos of fentanyl, 1.26 kilos of cocaine & over 6,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl; enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 MILLION adults,” the Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter Monday.

The post was accompanied by a photo of seized drugs, with the sheriff’s office saying it was recognizing the “great work” of its officers.

The announcement comes just days after police in Flagler County, Florida, which is just over 70 miles south of Jacksonville, announced the arrest of a fugitive with enough fentanyl to kill over 100,000 people, according to Fox 35.

In that case, 52-year-old Adrian Rivers was arrested with over 200 grams of fentanyl and other drugs. 

Rivers was charged with trafficking fentanyl and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

Fentanyl has become the largest driver of the U.S. opioid epidemic in recent years, with seizures of the drug spiking nearly 200% at the southern border in July, the highest amount seized in at least four fiscal years.

Fentanyl accounted for nearly 75% of U.S. drug overdose fatalities in 2021, with the drug being linked to around 80,000 overdose deaths last year.

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Ukrainian woman Inna Yashchyshyn posing as Rothschild family member infiltrated Mar-a-Lago

A Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking family has been outed as a fraud after she allegedly infiltrated former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports.

Inna Yashchyshyn, 33, lied to ritzy resort members that she was the heiress to the reputed family’s mass fortune, Anna de Rothschild, according to a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

She appeared at numerous Mar-a-Lago functions mingling with the likes of Trump, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and others while she held the position as president of United Hearts of Mercy, founded by Florida-based Russian oligarch and former business partner Valery Tarasenko in Canada in 2015, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

After hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the foundation, processor Stripe Inc., suspected fraud and halted the funds for the campaign which was supposed to help families devastated by the COVI-19 pandemic.

Yashchyshyn (left) is under investigation by US and Canadian officials.
OCCRP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Yashchyshyn, 33, is now the subject of several federal investigations after it was revealed she is not in fact a member of the Rothschild family. She’s additionally under investigation by Canadian authorities for alleged financial crimes.

In actuality, Yashchyshyn is the Russian-speaking daughter of an Illinois truck driver. It’s unclear when she came to the US.

She allegedly made several trips to the ex-president’s Florida estate with her fake identity to make connections with some of the nation’s biggest leaders, according to the paper.

Federal records obtained by the Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project showed Yashchyshyn had two fake passports from the US and Canada with the name “Anna de Rothschild.” A Florida driver’s license in her name listed a $13 million Miami Beach Mansion where she never lived. 

Yashchyshyn formerly worked in a suburban Miami business connecting pregnant Russian women to Americans looking to adopt a child, the Post-Gazette reported.

However, her tale of lies unfolded amid a legal dispute she had with her former associate, Tarasenko.

Yashchyshyn and her group dine after a golf fundraiser. She went under the fake name Anna de Rothschild.
OCCRP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It is unknown when Yashchyshyn came to the US and started posing as a member of one of the world’s wealthiest families.
AP

According to Tarasenko, a 44-year-old businessman raised in Moscow, she made multiple trips to Mar-a-Lago in an effort to make contacts and create new streams of business.

Photos from 2021 show the brunette hanging out with Trump, Graham and others, according to the reports.

“It wasn’t just dropping the family name. She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco,” John LeFevre, a former investment banker and author, told OCCRP.

She used “her fake identity as Anna de Rothschild to gain access to and build relationships with U.S. politician[s], including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and [former Missouri Gov.] Eric Greitens,” Tarasenko said, according to an affidavit obtained by the Post-Gazette.

She said under oath that she has never used another name and has not broken any laws. She told the Post-Gazette that she had never heard of Anna de Rothschild.

“It was the near-perfect ruse and she played the part,” LeFevre told the paper, recalling the woman’s appearances at the club.

Yashchyshyn claims Tarasenko used her for his own gains and was abusive towards her. She claimed any false identifications using the Rothschild name had been fabricated by Tarasenko.

“Over time, Tarasenko became more controlling and aggressive over me,” she said in an affidavit, obtained by the Post-Gazette.

It’s unclear when Yashchyshyn came to the US and began using the name Anna de Rothschild, OCCRP reported.

The Post-Gazette reports they have seen copies of her fake US and Canadian passports in the name of Anna de Rothschild with Yashchyshyn’s photograph, however, has denied she created them.

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Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz’s siblings to testify on his behalf

The brother and sister of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz are expected to testify on his behalf this week, when the killer’s defense attorneys unveil their case at his sentencing trial.

Arguing that his troubled childhood warrants some measure of mercy, Cruz’s counsel will lobby jurors in Florida to give him a sentence of life in prison, rather than the death penalty.

His half-sister, Danielle Woodard, 35, and brother, Zachary Cruz, 22, are expected to be questioned on the circumstances of their infamous sibling’s upbringing.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz’s siblings are expected to testify on his behalf at his sentencing trial this week.
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool
Zachary Cruz, 22, and Danielle Woodard, 35, will answer questions about Cruz’s childhood.
Miami-Dade Corrections, Broward

Woodward, who shares her birth mother with Cruz, is currently behind bars awaiting trial for allegedly car-jacking a 72-year-old woman in Broward County in 2020, and will be transferred from the jail to testify.

She has a long criminal history and has served several stints behind bars since her youth.

While their mother put Cruz up for adoption while still an infant, Woodard is expected to tell jurors about her drug and alcohol use while pregnant with him.

Cruz pleaded guilty to killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File
Anne Ramsay holding up a photo of her daughter Helena, a victim of the Parkland shooting, at Cruz’s trial on August 4, 2022.
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool

Zachary Cruz, who was hit with six months probation for trespassing at the shooting site after the murders, is expected to answer questions about his brother’s early life.

The defense team will highlight several traumas Nikolas Cruz endured as a child, including his mother’s cocaine and alcohol use while pregnant, his alleged sexual abuse by an unidentified “peer” and his adoptive father’s death at age 5.

Cruz’s lawyers will also bring up his acute mental health problems, bullying he endured at school and his adoptive mother’s passing months prior to the Feb. 14, 2018 massacre.

Cruz, then 19, opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 14 students and three staffers in one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history. He has pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder.

The defense deferred giving their opening statement at the start of the trial, and will do so as early as Monday.

Prosecutors presented Cruz’s crimes in graphic detail, with jurors watching footage of the bloodshed and touring the fenced-off crime scene.

Relatives and friends of those killed have given wrenching testimony about their torment, at times drawing tears from Cruz’s lawyers.

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Florida doctor Chaundre Cross’s wife filed for divorce on day he disappeared

The wife of a prominent Florida radiation oncologist who went missing from his boat on Aug. 10 filed for divorce the day he disappeared, according to county records. 

Dr. Chaundre Cross, 49, was last seen Aug. 10 leaving the Naples Bay Resort & Marina alone on his 33-foot Sea Ray boat, the “Vitamin Sea,” according to a tweet Friday from the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast. 

That same day, his wife, SarahJo Cross, filed for divorce in Collier County.

The USCG located and recovered Cross’ boat off Sanibel Island on Aug. 11 without any sign of the missing doctor.

In the days after the USCG Southeast located the boat 16 miles south of Sanibel Island, crews covered an area of approximately 13,100 square miles over the course of 100 hours before suspending their search.

“It is always a difficult decision to suspend a search and rescue case,” Capt. Michael Kahle, commander of Sector St. Petersburg, said Sunday in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the family and friends of Dr. Cross during this difficult time.”

In a statement posted Monday to Facebook, Kathy Cady, Cross’ stepmother and a Naples-based nurse, thanked the U.S. Coast Guard and Collier County law enforcement, as well as Cross’ “friends and the citizens of Naples who unselfishly gave their time and boats in the search for him.”

“During this time of grief, please offer prayers of support and respectful privacy for our family,” she wrote. “Although we now have a void, it will be filled with love, positivity, hope, patience, prayer, and through the Grace of God comfort. Chaundre’s three children and their mother, his father, stepmother, brothers and their wives, sister, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and long-time close friends thank you for all that was done in the rescue efforts for Chaundre K. Cross, M.D.”

Cross is described as 5-foot-11, weighing 150 pounds, with a bald head and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a purple shirt and black pants.

Cross serves as president of the Board of the Cancer Alliance of Naples, and previously served as a member of the Board for Collier County P.L.A.N. and the American Cancer Society of Naples. He has degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and completed his residency at Harvard Medical School, according to his biography on GenisisCare.com.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about his disappearance to contact CCSO at 239-252-9300.

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Florida swirling waterspout spotted in Destin

A large waterspout was spotted off the coast of Florida Tuesday morning — leaving spectators to the natural phenomenon in a state of awe, according to news reports and videos shown on social media.

The stunning scene near the city of Destin was captured by a person on the beach who could be heard saying, “Look at that dude, that’s a big ‘un,” according to video posted by weather.com.

The National Weather Service of Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida, said in a tweet that storms in the area were producing a large waterspout off shore as the agency warned boaters to use caution. The tweet also said the storm appeared to be moving parallel to the coast off Miramar Beach.

Another video shared by the Weather Service shows a driver capturing the moment as a car drives along a Florida highway around 6 a.m. central time.

The National Weather Service called the waterspout “a rather impressive one” as it explained in a series of tweets how the weather event can form.

The National Weather Service said they are like tornadoes over water and can be broken into either fair weather waterspouts of tornadic waterspouts.

Fair weather ones are usually the less dangerous of the two and can be common over South Florida’s coast from late spring to early fall, according to the Weather Service.

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Twerking McDonald’s ‘hamburglar’ busted on video: ‘She was McMad’

Wonder if she wanted fries with that shake.

A pregnant woman with a craving for fast food was not McLovin’ the service she received at a McDonald’s in Lakeland, Florida.

“She was McMad,” joked Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd during a Friday press conference, sharing that a warrant is out for her arrest.

Judd later described, “As Jones got to the exit, she turned toward the employees, lifted her shirt to expose her belly, then turned and began twerking at them.”

“She didn’t get her Happy Meal or her fish sandwich or her chocolate shake, or her sweet tea, but she managed to get herself into a lot of McTrouble,” the cop added.

On Thursday, Tianis Jones, 22, grew upset with the time it took to put together her drive-thru order, so she entered the restaurant to give employees a piece of her mind.

Jones allegedly threw a small plastic sign and several bottles at one worker, then went behind the counter and threw cups on the floor and at employees, sheriffs said.

One of Jones’ relatives reportedly intervened to calm her down, but the angry mother-to-be called 911 instead.

Tianis Jones twerked on her way out of the golden arches.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office/Fac

“I’m 5 months pregnant. These people don’t know how to run a f- -king McDonald’s,” she told workers after being asked several times to leave the dining room, according to ABC affiliate WFTV.

Investigators said Jones’ relative and another woman eventually convinced her to leave the store. The whole ordeal lasted about 10 minutes, and caused about $100 worth of damage.

“She ended up a ‘McBurglar’ — she committed a burglary and an assault, which is a first-degree felony,” Judd said, in a variation on the franchise mascot the Hamburglar.

“I don’t know why this woman got as angry as she was, but as the saying goes, she’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal,” he added. “She better not complain about the food we serve her at the county jail.”

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Disney+ Grows to Nearly 138 Million Subscribers, Even as Profit Slips Despite Return to Parks

Disney on Wednesday said its profit slipped in the recently ended quarter but its theme parks and streaming service Disney+ were booming.

The entertainment giant reported net income of $470 million (about Rs. 3,645 crore), just over half of the $912 million (about Rs. 7,075 crore) profit it made in the same period a year earlier.

But park attendance that had fallen due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic rebounded and Disney+ gained 7.9 million subscribers to hit 137.7 million.

When adding in subscriptions to Disney’s streaming services Hulu and ESPN+, the overall number tops 205 million.

“Our strong results in the second quarter, including fantastic performance at our domestic parks and continued growth of our streaming services once again proved that we are in a league of our own,” said Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek.

Chapek told analysts Disney is open to raising its streaming service subscription price in the future, but has no specific plans. Disney+ is pursuing a version of the service that would be supported by advertising, set to launch later in 2022.

Disney+ gained more subscribers than analysts had expected, in stark contrast to a dive in subscriber numbers reported by rival Netflix in the first quarter of this year.

A drop of just 200,000 users — less than 0.1 percent of the total Netflix customer base — caused shares in the Silicon Valley firm to plunge and prompted a shareholder to file a lawsuit accusing the streaming television titan of not making it clear that subscriber numbers were in peril.

“Disney+ has been taking Netflix out at the knees [in the US],” tech analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group told AFP.

“Kids have always chased their content, and for parents it has been a no-brainer to get their service.”

About half of Disney+ subscribers are families with children, executives said on the earnings call.

Disney stopped licensing its coveted content to Netflix to make it exclusive to its own streaming service, and said it planned to stick with the tactic when it comes to rivals in the market.

Parks and politics

Disney said that as its streaming television service continues to grow strongly, its resorts and parks are generally operating without any of the significant COVID-19 related restrictions on capacity that were in place last year.

The pandemic does continue to vex film and television show production, Disney said, but it has been able to release films in theatres so far this year.

“Our slate for the remainder of this year is incredibly strong,” Chapek told analysts while discussing the company’s line-up of shows for streaming and theatres.

Chapek acknowledged challenges getting Disney films released in China, saying the situation there is “very complicated” from political and business standpoints.

He said he was encouraged by the fact that a freshly released Doctor Strange film based on a Marvel comics character took in more than $500 million (about Rs. 3,877 crore) in its first week, even without being shown in China.

Disney has run into political turbulence closer to home, with the Florida governor recently signing a law that eliminates a statute that has for decades allowed the entertainment giant to act as a local government in Orlando, where it has a theme park.

The move was the latest episode in a dispute between the state’s Republican administration and Disney, after the company criticised the passage in March of a law banning school lessons on sexual orientation.

“From a financial standpoint, Disney will come out ahead with the plug pulled,” analyst Enderle said.

“It’s almost like Florida gave them a monetary favour; Disney was covering all the costs of the municipality they are in.”

The Reedy Creek Improvement District was an area created by Florida’s congress in 1967 to facilitate the construction of Disney World in Orlando.

Under that agreement, Disney runs the district as if the entertainment juggernaut were a local government, including collecting taxes and guaranteeing essential public services such as garbage collection and water treatment.

Under Florida law, if the special district is dissolved, its assets and debts would be transferred to local governments that surround the area.

“Removing district could transfer $2 billion (about Rs. 15,515 crore) debt from Disney to taxpayers,” state Democratic senator Linda Stewart warned after the bill was signed.

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