A suspected drug dealer is in custody after police say he sold some Miami-Dade middle schoolers drugs that made them sick.
Police say 18-year-old Walter Maxemiliano Castillo, who lives just blocks away from Rockaway Middle School in Westchester, targeted some young students as potential customers.
But on Thursday, one of the students was hospitalized after he reportedly got sick from using the drugs. Paramedics arrived at the school in the 9300 block of Southwest 29th Terrace and transported the child to a nearby hospital as a precaution.
Two of the student's classmates told school administrators and Miami-Dade School Police officers that they didn't have to go far to get their supply.
It turns out Castillo lives within 1,000 feet of the school, in the 3100 block of Southwest 96th Ave.
"It's very disturbing that somebody would set up camp so close to a school," said Chief Charles J. Hurley, with Miami-Dade School Police.
After getting consent from Castillo's mother to search the house, detectives found over 20 grams of marijuana, along with pills believed to be ecstasy and Xanax.
Castillo faces a number of drug charges along with child abuse. Florida law states that the intentional infliction of physical or mental injury on a child accounts for abuse.
Castillo remains in jail on over $68,000 bond.
The drugs weren't the only troubling find in Castillo's house.
"Oddly enough, the container in which these drugs were located had some writing on it that said 'Bird Road Boys,'" Hurley said.
The Bird Road Boys is a dangerous Miami-Dade street gang, which made headlines in 2008 after one of its members made headlines after making an infamous YouTube video in which he taunts police while holding rifles and hand guns.
The thug, Rudy Villanueva, was later arrested and charged with possession of a fire arm by a convicted felon.
Meanwhile, the students at Rockaway got a first-hand lesson on the dangers associated with drugs, a lesson the police plan to enforce long after the bell rings.
"When it comes down to caring and protecting our children, it's a 24-hour business," Hurley said.
