According to reports by WESH News and Orlando Sentinel, an Orlando restaurant has closed for allegedly being a front for drugs and other criminal activity for over two decades.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the list of nefarious things going down at PR House, located on Lake Underhill Road, was almost endless, including shootings, illegal guns, a murder and people turning up dead from overdoses.
Allegedly, plenty of drugs were being made and or sold at the criminal enterprise posing as a local restaurant.
“They did not sell enough beer and food to keep the lights on. It was a front for drugs,” said Ron Stucker, the director of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. “Our investigation showed probably 60 to 80 people every day would enter the PR House they would be in there two to three minutes … never buy beer or anything … so 60 to 80 people were going in there to buy cocaine.”
For almost 20 years, OCSO says they’ve been working to take the bar and the people who run it down. On Wednesday, they announced the arrest of 15 people, including Rosa Lopez, who was the owner of the bar. Each of them is facing a host of charges, including racketeering and money laundering.
The arrests, announced Wednesday by Orange County Sheriff John Mina, are the result of a long-term investigation into the PR House restaurant with the assistance of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. Along with racketeering, all 18 suspects face charges of armed cocaine trafficking, which carries a life sentence if convicted.
