May 11, 2022- 12:30 p.m.
A woman arrested in one of Lee County’s largest drug busts is back behind bars after violating the conditions of her release.
Melissa Cossio, 34, was arrested last year in what the Lee County Sheriff’s Office called one of the largest drug trafficking operations in its history.
On Tuesday, Cossio was back in court after pretrial officers said she violated her release by tampering with or damaging her GPS monitoring equipment.
A judge on Tuesday set her new bond at a total of $12.1 million across eight drug trafficking charges.
Cossio was one of six people arrested in May 2021 following a months-long investigation into drug trafficking by LSCO.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said that the Cassio family was running a drug operation from their home on Avalon Lake Circle in Gateway at the time of the arrests.
After the arrests, investigators found more than $1 million in cash, 12 firearms, and multiple kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl. They also seized several high-end vehicles that they believe were purchased with the proceeds of the drug trafficking operation.
