MIAMI – A Mexican national made his initial appearance in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 17 after law enforcement recovered more than 50,000 fentanyl pills concealed inside a child’s toy.
According to the complaint affidavit, officers approached a vehicle driven by Guillermo Higuera German, 37. During a consensual encounter, a certified narcotics K-9 conducted an open-air sniff and alerted to narcotics.
A search of the vehicle followed. Officers found several boxes and a Sesame Street-style school bus toy packed with thousands of fentanyl pills that weighed about five kilograms. The investigation also determined that Higuera German was illegally in the U.S. and had been deported five times.
Higuera German is again subject to removal.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division made the announcement.
The DEA Miami Field Division and Fort Lauderdale Police Department are investigating, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on potential immigration offenses.
This case is being prosecuted by the newly formed Border and Immigration Crimes Enforcement (BICE) Section. BICE was created by U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones to strengthen South Florida’s border security posture, protect maritime and land points of entry, enforce federal immigration law, and dismantle transnational smuggling networks operating through the region.
The Section brings together narcotics, immigration, fraud, and violent-crime expertise into a single coordinated unit focused on border-driven threats.
