An assistant professor at the University of Miami’s medical school has been charged with trafficking a date-rape drug known as “liquid ecstasy” and “coma in a bottle.”
Dr. Dairon Garcia, 44, was hit with drug-related charges Friday after authorities said they linked him to a package intercepted at Miami International Airport that contained about 15 pounds of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, identified by the DEA as a date-rape drug, WPLG-TV News reported.
“He should be so embarrassed being here,” Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said of Garcia at his arraignment. “He’s a medical doctor, going through all those years of education and committing his life to helping people and to get arrested for this.
“That’s between you, your lawyer and the criminal justice system. Good luck to you, sir.”
Garcia, an assistant professor of clinical radiology at the UM Miller School of Medicine, joined the school’s faculty in 2022 after graduating from Duke University’s medical school, the outlet said.
The charges against him stem from a package from Paris, France that was addressed to a duplex Garcia owns that was intercepted by customs officers at the airport on Aug. 29.
Miami police were tipped off by the US Department of Homeland Security, and staked out the address when the package was delivered on Sept. 12 and picked up from the doorstep by a woman.
After cops raided the home, the woman’s daughter told them that the landlord, Garcia, had called to say that a package for him would be delivered there and “to please received [sic] that package,” according to a police report reviewed by WPLG.
Meanwhile, another resident in the apartment complex told police that another package for Garcia from France had been delivered to their address on Sept. 7 — and another package was intercepted on Sept. 25 that was addressed to DG Diagnostics MD LLC, which is registered to Garcia.
Police arrested him on Friday at his condo on Biscayne Boulevard Way in downtown Miami.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Friday and was ordered held on $15,000 bail, which he posted later in that evening. He declined to comment as he left.
Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, is colorless and easily mixed in other drinks, often leaving people unaware they’ve consumed it until they are put to sleep, the DEA says, giving it the numerous alarming nicknames like “grievous bodily harm” and “coma in a bottle.”
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