A South Florida doctor is accused of shipping packages of the illegal drug GBL from out of the country and having them delivered to a duplex he owns in Coral Gables, police said.
Darion Garcia, a doctor at the University of Miami Health System and assistant professor of radiology, was arrested Thursday and faces charges of trafficking GBL, or gamma-butyrolactone, according to an arrest affidavit.
The investigation started last month when packages from France showed up at the duplex on Southwest 22nd Terrace.
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A man told NBC6 that according to his neighbor, SWAT officers kicked down their door with guns drawn to search for the package.
The man said he just knew his landlord shipped a package to his home a few days earlier and picked it up the next day, and didn't know his neighbor also had a package.
The arrest form says his neighbors only knew that Garcia was sending a package to the property.
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Garcia appeared in bond court Friday, where a judge had some strong words for him.
"He should be so embarrassed being here, he's a medical doctor going through all those years of education and help committing his life to helping people and got arrested for this, but that's between him and his lawyer and the criminal justice system," the judge said.
In a statement, Jackson Hospital clarified Garcia is not a Jackson employee, but he was credentialed to work in their hospitals. However, his privileges have been suspended.
Garcia posted a bond of $15,000.
GBL is a chemical found in cleaning solutions and nail polish. It is illicitly used as a substitute and chemical precursor to gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a date rape drug.
