Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey and Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced the arrest of three individuals for their part in a multimillion dollar drug diversion scheme. The three are accused of buying prescription drugs from Medicaid recipients, repacking them and reselling the drugs to out of state wholesalers.

Arrested were Jorge Hernandez, 45; his wife, Maria Hernandez, 44; and Dorislays Alejo, 22, all of Miami. The three operated Redlands Investments in Miami and worked out of the Hernandez home as well as two rented warehouses located in South Miami.

An FDLE special agent, working as part of the Stone Cold Task Force, reportedly followed Jorge and Maria Hernandez last week as they delivered eight boxes of drugs to Federal Express in Miami. The boxes, later recovered, contained more than $500,000 of contraband prescription drugs, none of which was accompanied by legally required paperwork such as invoices and pedigree papers that would show their source. Later that week, agents stopped a semi-trailer truck loaded with an estimated $1 million of contraband prescription drugs seen leaving from a warehouse rented by Jorge Hernandez.

On Wednesday, agents from FDLE, the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration served search warrants on the home of Jorge and Maria Hernandez and on the two Miami warehouses. Agents recovered an estimated $500,000 of additional contraband prescription drugs as well as suspected forged documentation for the drugs.

Each of the three defendants are charged with one count of trafficking in

contraband prescription drugs, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, one count of conspiracy to traffic in contraband prescription drugs, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, one count of organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, one count of conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. They will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

All three individuals were booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail. Bond has been set at $1 million each. A media availability will be held this afternoon on this case at the FDLE Miami Office at 2 p.m.