MIAMI – Police arrested a radiologist who serves as a faculty member at the University of Miami’s medical school on two first-degree felony charges after they said he trafficked a common date rape drug.
Dr. Dairon Garcia, 44, was identified as an assistant professor of clinical radiology on the UM Miller School of Medicine website Friday afternoon. According to the university, he is a graduate of Duke University’s medical school and joined the UM faculty in 2022.
According to an arrest report from the Miami Police Department, the investigation into Garcia began with a package intercepted by customs officers at Miami International Airport on Aug. 29 destined for a duplex on Southwest 22nd Terrace owned by Garcia.
5 p.m. report:
The package, shipped by the French postal service, came from a sender in Paris, authorities said. According to the report, it contained nearly 7 kg of gamma-butyrolactone, or GBL. GBL is identified by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the Drug Enforcement Administration as a date rape drug.
Federal authorities say GBL is “an industrial chemical solvent and a precursor chemical to the dangerous gamma-hydroxybutyric acid,” or GHB, and commonly used to achieve the same effect as GHB. It’s known by street names including “liquid ecstasy” and “coma in a bottle.”
A Homeland Security Investigations special agent contacted Miami police after the discovery, the report states.
Police said the package was addressed to someone living at the duplex and a company called “Damaga Properties.” They said on Sept. 12, MPD’s SWAT team stood by as a woman picked it up from her doorstep. Officers raided the home.
The report states that the woman’s daughter arrived and explained that the duplex property manager “had called her and informed her that a package for the owner of the property (Dr. Dairon Manuel Garcia) was going to be delivered to her location (and) to please received (sic) the package.”
Authorities said the woman had text messages to prove it.
Police said they also interviewed another resident of the duplex, who said “he also received a package from France under his name” on Sept. 7.
“He also stated he opened it and observed that it contained plastic bags with liquid inside the package, which was addressed to him and Damaga Properties,” the report states. “(He) contacted (the property manager) and argued with her.”
Police said that the property manager said “she did not know why Garcia had sent the packages to the location under (the man’s) name, but she would inform him that the package had arrived.”
Authorities said Garcia picked up the package the next day.
The report states that on Sept. 25, the HSI agent told MPD detectives that customs officers intercepted another package of about 5 kg of GBL addressed to “DG Diagnostics MD LLC,” registered to Garcia.
Police said on Thursday, they went to Garcia’s condominium at Epic Tower, located at 200 Biscayne Boulevard Way in downtown Miami, and took him into custody.
His police statement was redacted from the arrest report.
In court on Friday, Garcia received a lecture from Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer.
“He should be so embarrassed being here,” Glazer said. “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.”
He was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $15,000 bond until he was released on Friday evening.
Garcia had nothing to say and quickly walked to a vehicle after exiting the jail.
Local 10 News has contacted the Miller School of Medicine seeking comment on Garcia’s arrest and an update on his employment status.
In a statement Monday, a spokeswoman for the Jackson Health System wrote, “While Dr. Dairon Garcia is not a Jackson employee, he is credentialed to work in our hospitals. In light of this recent charge, his privileges have been immediately suspended.”