DeSantis suspends Florida sheriff after he is arrested on racketeering charges

Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez from office on Thursday shortly after he was arrested on felony charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution charged Lopez and four other individuals in a “massive Central Florida gambling operation,” according to a press release issued by the attorney general’s office.

“Initially engaging the operation for campaign contributions and personal payments, Sheriff Lopez played a multifaceted role in expanding and protecting this illegal enterprise, using his office to shield the enterprise from law enforcement,” the release said.

DeSantis has appointed Christopher Blackmon to take over the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department. Blackmon has been serving as the Central Region Chief for the Florida Highway Patrol since November 2023, and before that served as a troop commander and major in the FHP. Between 2007-2016, he worked as a resident security agent for Major League Baseball, according to his LinkedIn account.

Lopez began serving in the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department in 2003 while he was still serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He rose up the ranks before ultimately being elected sheriff in 2020, becoming the first Hispanic in Osceola County to do so. A Democrat, he was re-elected last fall.

There had been scandals under Lopez’s tenure, including a 2022 sheriff deputies’ killing of a man who drove a car carrying two passengers accused of shoplifting $46 in pizza and Pokemon cards. A grand jury report later said the killing could have been avoided if not for their faulty judgement and their department’s “poorly crafted policies on the use of appropriate force in response to minor crimes,” the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Lopez also ended up agreeing to pay a $250 fine last December in a plea deal with then-State Attorney Andrew Bain for inadvertently posting a photo on social media of a crime victim who was a minor. That led Bain to add Lopez’s name to his office’s Brady Identification System, which lists the names of law enforcement officers who have a history of misconduct.

The AG’s press release says a multi-agency investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and joined by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began looking into Lopez and his associates in 2023. The investigation ultimately uncovered “a criminal organization operating an illegal gambling enterprise throughout Central Florida, particularly in Lake and Osceola Counties.”

Lopez and his associates ran a lottery, slot machines, and a “gambling house out of a business known as Fusion Social Club,” according to the charging document filed in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit. The alleged criminal operation generated $21.6 million in profits, according to the AG’s office.

According to an official with the Lake County Jail, Lopez is being held without bond pending a June 30 arraignment.