The 10 signs that your senior community may be sheltering a criminal drug ring

By Frank Cerabino, Palm Beach Post

Feb 14, 2020


From: Cerabino Crime Prevention Bureau

To: Property managers

Subject: Florida drug rings operating in senior housing


 \Please be advised that the CCPB is following closely the efforts of the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that uncovered an alleged drug ring operating in a St. Petersburg complex that touted itself as “stylish living for seniors.”


The 10-month operation, which we’ve code named “My Pillow’s Fulla Cocaine”, highlights a brazen operation that used a senior-citizen’s seventh-floor apartment as the headquarters for a drug ring.

And we’re not talking Lipitor.


Authorities say the group used an apartment leased to the mother of two of the members of the crime ring as a stash house for guns, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and money derived from their illegal enterprise.


Eleven people have been charged, but not the tenant of the apartment. Clearly, she will not be a strong candidate for the building’s crime watch committee.


In our role as amateur crime-prevention specialists, we are working closely with authorities -- even though they don’t know it yet -- to alert the many other senior-living communities in Florida to be on the lookout for other drug rings that may be run out of your buildings.


It’s easy to imagine that nothing dicier than sloppy pool hygiene goes on in senior-living complexes, which makes them the perfect spot for a criminal enterprise.


After all, you don’t hear seniors shouting, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get uppers!”

Also, any conversation where the word “drugs” is mentioned will certainly not be considered suspicious or potentially criminal in one of those communities.

And you know what’s a “crime”? Paying full price for those drugs. So, even an overheard discussion about “a drug deal” would not ring any alarm bells.


Not in a place where everyone is expecting to get a drug deal.

It’s a wonder that more of these criminal drug rings haven’t already figured out the benefits of using a grandma unit as the headquarters for their operation.


So, in the spirit of educating the public, we here at the CCPB are issuing the 10 warning signs that your senior living complex may be sheltering a drug ring.


1. There’s a sudden influx of adult sons visiting on days that aren’t Mothers Day.

2. One or more tenants start riding motorized scooters that have spinner wheels and low-rider suspension.

3. Your elderly neighbor trades in her emotional support Chihuahua for three toothy rottweilers.

4. The Muscovy ducks wandering the common areas are too strung out to poop on people’s cars.

5. The Meals on Wheels van has blackout windows and bulletproof glass.

6. You hear somebody talk about a drug that’s measured in kilos, and you wonder if it is administered orally or the other way.

7. The money-laundering of stacks of $20 bills cripples the pace of the weekly bingo game.

8. The delivery guy starts carrying pizza in a duffel bag instead of a flat cardboard box.

9. You’re asked to become an informant, and it’s not about your neighbor’s habit of taking paper supplies from the lobby restroom.

10. You hear loud bangs next door, and it doesn’t sound like a walker bumping into the furniture.


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