FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Lee County drug ring leader was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute heroin and fentanyl, while also possessing multiple firearms as a convicted felon.
Alphonda Baker, Sr., 45, pleaded guilty on Feb. 5.
Travis Lee Watkins, Tafawah Horrobin, and Michael Horrobin are three associates of Baker who were previously sentenced to federal prison for the conspiracy.
According to court documents, Baker was the head of a drug organization that distributed significant amounts of heroin and fentanyl in Lee County.
In 2018, law enforcement successfully purchased heroin laced with fentanyl from Horrobin on multiple occasions.
Horrobin lived in Cape Coral but made frequent visits to a home in Lehigh Acres. Baker rented this property to serve as a “safe house” where large quantities of drugs were stockpiled. Watkins and Horrobin also lived in it.
In August, 2018, search warrants on Horrobin and Baker’s Cape Coral homes and the safe house yielded various items used for distributing drugs, an illegally possessed firearm, and cash.
Inside the Lehigh Acres safe house, there was approximately one kilogram of a fentanyl/heroin mixture, 400 grams of cocaine, smaller amounts of crack cocaine and methamphetamine, and four firearms.
Eight firearms were seized from Baker’s Cape Coral residence.
This case was investigated by the DEA and Cape Coral Police, with assistance from the FBI. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael V. Leeman.
