WATCH: Brevard County Sheriff, Palm Bay Police Announce Massive Seizure of Illegal Substances, Weapons, and Explosives

50 pounds of precursor chemicals used to manufacture explosives

ABOVE VIDEO: Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, Federal Task Forces Seize 92,000 lbs of Illegal Substance Plus Weapons, Explosives

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, working with the Palm Bay Police Department, the DEA, ATF, and several federal task force partners, announced the arrest of 26-year-old Maxwell Horvath after a major operation uncovered an extensive cache of illegal weapons, explosive materials, and what federal authorities say is the largest seizure in the nation of a kratom-derived substance known as “7-0.”

Officials said agents executed a search warrant earlier in the day at Horvath’s property, where they discovered approximately 92,000 pounds of the extracted substance used to produce 7-0. The Florida Legislature recently passed an emergency ban making 7-0 illegal statewide. Federal partners confirmed that the quantity seized in this case is unprecedented in the United States.

According to investigators, Horvath operated a business called Overseas Organics, which served as a front for manufacturing and distributing the illegal kratom derivative. Undercover agents had previously conducted controlled purchases and were even given a tour of the facility. Authorities described the operation as resembling a large-scale drug production lab, with multiple extraction rooms, sterile environments, and industrial equipment used to compress and ship the product. Horvath allegedly believed that shipping purchases out of Florida shielded him from prosecution, a belief authorities said was incorrect.

Palm Bay Police Chief Mario Augello reported that investigators also recovered five improvised explosive devices, grenade simulators, and about 50 pounds of precursor chemicals used to manufacture explosives. Officials emphasized that materials of this type are commonly used in military or terrorist operations overseas.

In addition to explosives, authorities seized an extensive arsenal of weapons from the property. The list included 12 rifles, a short-barreled rifle, 17 pistols, three shotguns, a revolver, two fully automatic submachine guns, three suppressors, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Investigators also found a .50-caliber firearm mounted on a tripod. Officials said Horvath had been manufacturing suppressors and modifying weapons to be fully automatic, raising concerns that he was preparing for violent activity or supplying others who were.

Horvath has a prior federal conviction from 2017 for possession of an explosive device and trafficking MDMA, for which he served two years in federal prison followed by probation.

Authorities said he now faces at least 36 counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, along with additional charges for possessing illegal weapons, machine guns, and explosive devices. More state and federal charges are expected, including pending federal indictments that officials say could keep him in prison for life.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey and Chief Augello credited the coordinated effort of local and federal agencies for stopping what they described as a significant threat to public safety.

Ivey said the quantity of illegal substances, combined with the firepower and explosives found at the scene, showed the potential for catastrophic harm.

Horvath is currently being held in the Brevard County jail as the investigation continues.

Below is a transcript of the following video: 

Hello, everyone. I’m Sheriff Wayne Ivey of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and I’m standing here with Palm Bay Chief Augello. We’re going to give you a breakdown on a case that our agency’s worked on today, along with DEA, ATF, other federal task force members. I’m going to start out by saying what you see lying on the table in front of us with all the guns. A lot of these weapons are automatic weapons. We’ll get into some of the meat and potatoes of this in just a second. But what’s even more concerning, the boxes that you see behind us, and I’m going to step out of the way where you can, you can take a good look at them. All of these boxes contain, and this is just half of it, by the way, it goes all the way back.

It contains 92,000 pounds of a extracted substance, substance that’s taken out of kratom, the substance kratom, taken out of kratom, and it makes it what’s called 7-0, which recently the Florida legislature did an emergency bill to make 7-0 illegal here in the state of Florida. Maxwell Horvath is who we have in custody for this. Chief, I know you… You’ve got the briefing as well as I have. Search one earlier this morning. Our team went out, as I said, agents from all the different agencies involved, feds. Local law enforcement working on this. So I’m going to give you a little bit of background on Maxwell Horvath. And then the chief’s going to talk about some of the things that he had inside.

26 years old. Um, in 2017, I remember he was just 26 years old. In 2017, he served two years in federal prison for possession of an explosive device, trafficking and MDMA. Um, he got two years of federal probation. Uh, well, he’s got a lot more coming now, including federal pending federal indictments, uh, that are coming on him. Uh, chief, uh, If you’ll talk a little bit about the explosive stuff they found.

Yeah, sure. I appreciate it. You know, great collaboration, as you mentioned, by all agencies and departments involved. But yeah. So, for example, and provides explosive devices. Five IEDs were located on this property where the warrant was initiated at. Not to mention grenade simulators. And 50 pounds of precursor chemicals to make explosives. So we’re not just talking about drugs, we’re not just talking about illegal substances out in the streets. We’re talking about explosive devices, things that the military are utilizing and other countries are utilizing all over the world to take out populations of people. I said, this is.”

“Yes, terrorist activities across the board. When you look at the explosive devices, as the chief said, 50 pounds. In addition to that, and I’m going to read it off: 12 rifles, 1 short-barreled rifle, 17 pistols, 3 shotguns, 1 revolver, 2 fully automatic submachine guns, 3 suppressors, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. And then, as I said, on top of that, 92,000 pounds. From everything that we can tell from our federal partners, this is the largest seizure of this kind in the country.

Nobody’s ever been able to do this. As I said, Florida recently passed an emergency law making the 7-0 substance the derivative of the Kratom, making it illegal.

The best part of this is Horvath knows it’s illegal, but thinks he’s circumventing the system. He actually runs a business called Overseas Organics. And he thinks that, because you go there and make a purchase, or you make a purchase online and he ships it out of the state of Florida, he’s not violating the law. Well, trick or treat, he is. Not only is he violating the law for that, but all the weapons, all the explosive devices, everything else that he has is going to land him in prison for the rest of his life. Back in September, our agents worked together, made buys from Horvath.

He actually even gave them a tour of his business. I mean, he’s proud of his business. You’re seeing in some of the film that we’re rolling now for you, ‘The Business.’ This thing looked like Breaking Bad on steroids is what it looked like. He had it lined up with all sorts of different chambers and rooms and sterile environments, everything else. And they were taking and extracting it, putting it in compressing machines. As I said, his company would ship it out. And he would even, if you went there and made the purchase, he would tell you he’s got to ship it to somebody in another state because that way he thought it made it legal. Well, it didn’t. All right. And he’s he’s in custody. We’re still putting all the charges on him.

I can tell you right now, he’s going to have automatically 36 counts possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. One count possession of a short-barrel rifle. Two counts possession of a short-barrel machine gun and then more charges coming for the explosive.”

“So yeah, sheriff, it’s uh like you said—it’s uh, 26 years old already, pretty much a career offender, started the age of 17. Federal uh charges, federal indictments. Um, he has no regard for for the sanctity of life and uh. Great, great, great job by your folks, man. It was great collaboration.”

“Yeah, great, great job by our agents, our local partners, our federal partners. Folks, this is what danger looks like right here. Everything that you see behind us. Everything you see in front of us is a red flag for disaster. It is huge. I mean, look, the guy was making his own suppressors, fully automatic weapons, explosive devices. This guy was either looking to engage war or looking to arm those and furnish to those that are. And you see. Even had, as you can see in the video, even had a . 50 cal on a tripod ready to do serious damage.

So he’s locked up. He’s in Ivy’s iron bar lodge. He’s going to stay there. As I said, he’s got pending federal indictments. Those indictments will make sure that he spends the rest of his life right where he deserves, and that’s in prison. But great job by all of our team. 92,000 pounds of this synthetic substance. So great job. We’ll get you more information as this thing continues, but I just wanted to get this out to everybody so that they can see the great work our team’s doing and also know that this individual’s off the streets and locked behind bars.”

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