The real life ‘Breaking Bad’ drug fronts that hid in plain sight across the US

Feds who raided an unassuming car rental in Houston last week found more than 17lbs of possible fentanyl precursors and over 1 kilogram of counterfeit Xanax pills laced with fentanyl in the latest bust of businesses doubling as drug depots.

Four men are facing manufacturing and distribution charges following the high-profile raid of Speedy Slingshot Rental, which happened January 30 and could be linked to what feds say is a complex, far-reaching drug operation.

Authorities confiscated several pounds of product, pills, and high-tech drug-making machinery from the store, which opened last year and bills itself as Houston’s premier exotic vehicle rental experience.

More charges are likely to follow for the unnamed men – who are reportedly already out on bail, despite authorities airing the belief the bust-up may be linked to Mexican cartels who have sought to expand their reach stateside.

The incident is just the latest in a series of Breaking Bad-esque busts of businesses acting as a front for criminal enterprises, with the one in Texas uncovering a sprawling, sophisticated lab straight from the hit series.

Neighbors said undercover officers had been staking out the shop for days prior to the raid, where feds found pill press machines, more than 17lbs of possible fentanyl precursors, and over 1 kilogram of counterfeit Xanax pills laced with fentanyl – a deadly drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin.

A synthetic opioid, the drug is commonly added to other illicit substances like cocaine and meth due to it’s affordability and potency. The is blamed for helping fuel America’s current drug crisis and subsequent rise in opioid-related deaths.

Authorities also discovered felony quantities of cocaine, ecstasy, meth, and fentanyl-laced Oxycodone at the roadside business – as well as a stolen vehicle, three pistols, and a rifle.

The four men arrested at the business have yet to be identified, and reportedly tried to flee from agents who descended on the store, according to the charges leveled against them – which included evading authorities in a motor vehicle.

Fox News further reported that all four of the men were out on bail as early as Wednesday, despite facing felony distribution and manufacturing charges that could see them put away in a federal pen for up to 99 years.

The suspected drug depot is still being investigated, and is only the most recent instance of a restaurant, office, or other business serving as a cover for an illicit drug operation – a la the Albuquerque car wash bought by a rising Walter White, or the equally inconspicuous cartel-run chicken chain Los Pollos Hermanos.

That said, as efforts to quell the opioid crisis become more pronounced, drug factories adopting the façade of a respectable businesses have become more common – leading many to question exactly just how many are hiding in plain sight.

Shiva Science & Technology Group – ‘biotech’ firm busted earlier this year

In September, feds unmasked one of these potential rings operating out of a prominent Pennsylvania tech firm.

Located in Lewisburg, the unassuming office for Shiva Science & Technology Group not only contained the usual computers and cubicles, but another full-service lab designed to synthesize mass quantities of fentanyl.

Billing itself as a ‘biotech’ firm, the company not employed staff with no science background whatsoever, but compiled chemicals not for the betterment of mankind, but to create the powerful narcotic blamed for more than 80,000 of the 108,000 overdose deaths seen across America in 2021.

The alleged mastermind, 50-year-old Chairman & CEO Anthony Bressi, admitted that for more than six years, he and his coconspirators were manufacturing and selling in an elaborate underground, online network, where he charged buyers $25,000 a kilogram.

A laboratory analysis of the chemicals seized from the business, which at first glance looks like any other office building in the area, confirmed the crook’s story, after feds determined the office’s well-equipped laboratory was capable of producing mass amounts of fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl and carfentanil, feds wrote in an affidavit. 

Bressi, and alleged accomplices Damonico Henderson, 58, and Terry Harris, 49, are currently awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to deliver controlled substances following the depot’s downfall. 

 The Original Nancy’s Seafood and Oriental Market’ – raided in 2019

Another bust a few thousand miles south in Georgia saw five restaurant staffers cuffed on similar charges, after they were found to be operating a drug ring run out of the back of their family-run Seafood restaurant.

While a far cry from the professional operation carried out by fried chicken kingpin Gus Fring, the undercover drug ring at ‘The Original Nancy’s Seafood and Oriental Market’ was busted in 2019, after feds found crystal meth, ‘more’ than four pounds of marijuana, 100 THC vape pens, and cash at the bayside business in Savannah.

A sign outside the eatery seemingly advertised the extracurricular items, reading: ‘fresh seafood and more,’ with feds revealing all of the illegal drug deals carried out – not carry-out – by owner Trinh Kapu, 48, was done inside the unassuming eatery.

‘In some cases people were going to the very back of the restaurant so the general public was not made aware,’ said Gene Harley, Assistant Director of Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team, of the restaurant’s business model.

‘There were a lot of people that were utilizing that solely to obtain their narcotics, so it was as distribution hub,’ Harley said.

A bust-up of Kapu’s home would later turn up cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana, weapons and several thousand dollars in cash, while several of her family members employed at the store were also arrested for participating in the cross-country drug ring. Kapu is currently serving a 20-year-stint in prison.

La Victoria Mercado Y Carniceria – part of ‘sprawling cartel coke ring’ 

Another inconspicuous storefront to come under federal scrutiny this year was a Mexican supermarket in California, whose owner also stands accused of using the shop as a front – all while partnering with one of Mexico’s most prominent cartels.

Jose Manuel Chavez Zepeda and employee Denis Ponce Castillo’s alleged misdeeds were uncovered in April of this year, when agents raided Zepeda’s grocery store, La Victoria Mercado Y Carniceria in Sacramento.

Feds said customers were oblivious to the pair’s alleged misdeeds, which included using the Latin American market as a site for illicit cocaine deals – as well as a source of legitimate income to launder the profits.

The FBI said the notorious Mexican cartel Jalisco New Generation supplied the cocaine to Zepeda by smuggling thousands of pounds of the drug across the border, and then traveling to LA where the drugs were loaded into trucks and driven to Ceres.

The drugs, feds said, were then distributed throughout Sacramento – helping to fuel a drug epidemic currently plaguing residents of the Golden State’s once-picturesque capital.

‘It’s really depressing because we are already in a bad neighborhood as it is, and that is not benefitting the people of the community,’ customer Paul Yanez told the city’s CBS affiliate following the high-profile bust-up, which served as the culmination of a six-year investigation spanning across several states, agents said.

Feds said they became aware of the suspected drug depot after receiving a tip from informant who agreed to work with the bureau in exchange for securing his immigration status. 

If found guilty of felony drug distribution, the pair could spend 5 to 40 years in prison – and could face up to $5 million in fines.

Florida car wash that doubled as drug depot

In another incident that harks back to Vince Gilligan’s meth-fueled masterpiece, a car wash in Daytona, Florida, was revealed to be a front for various illegal exploits in 2017.

The shop’s 41-year-old owner Kevin Stokes, better known by his street pseudonym ‘Pooh Bear’, was subsequently arrested, and accused of running a narcotics trafficking operation out of the car wash and an adjoining snack shop.

The business, feds said, served as a one-stop shop where customers could purchase coke, heroin, and other schedule-1 drugs, and despite its cover, had been a well-known drug den for years.

Called a ‘plague’ on the community, the store has since been closed, and Stokes arrested.

He was later charged with the murder of 19-year-old Daytona man, and is currently serving a life sentence.