The District Attorney’s Dangerous Drug Offenders Unit has dismantled a major drug ring that has been trafficking cocaine from Manhattan and the Bronx into Philadelphia. Seventeen people have been arrested including a husband and wife team from Puerto Rico, as a result of a three- month investigation that included using wiretaps. The DA’s office began this investigation in February after receiving a tip from a confidential informant that garages and auto body shops across the city were equipping vehicles with special compartments to traffic drugs. Those vehicles would then travel to New York, pick up shipments of cocaine, and then travel back to Philadelphia.
Twenty-eight kilos of cocaine with a street value of close to $3 million, $300,000 in cash, 16 vehicles, 11 properties and five guns have been seized as a result of this operation. This cocaine pipeline between New York and Philadelphia has been shut down thanks to a joint effort between the Dangerous Drug Offenders Unit of the Special Operations Division of the District Attorney’s Office, members of the DEA in Philadelphia and New York, and members of the Philadelphia, Bensalem, Cheltenham, Bristol, Middletown, and Abington police departments.
This operation is a direct result of the September 2011 arrests made by the DA’s Dangerous Drug Offender’s Unit involving members of the Sinaloa drug cartel out of Mexico. The Sinaloa Cartel, which operates from Sinaloa and Juarez Mexico, is one of the largest and most powerful drug cartels in the worldA. One of the defendants arrested in that operation became an informant in this case, and led investigators to a garage on the 3000 block of Martha Street. Information from that garage resulted in the identification of other garages and body shops involved in this drug ring.
“Back in September we announced that we had effectively cut off the head of a dangerous and deadly monster before it ever had a chance of poisoning our streets,” says District Attorney Seth Williams. “Now thanks to those arrests not only did we stop the Sinaloa Cartel from becoming a viable operation in Philadelphia, we have also shut down another drug ring that was trying to destroy our city.”
Defendants and Charges
Lisette E. Pichardo of San Juan, Puerto Rico
• PWID (Possession With Intent to Distribute)
• Conspiracy
• K and I (Knowingly and Intentionaly
26 year old Juan D. Rivera of San Juan, Puerto Rico
• PWID
• Criminal Conspiracy
• K&I
38 -year- old Jorge Rivera of Philadelphia
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
Orlando Torres
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
• Possession of Instrument of Crime (PIC)
• Paraphanalia
27-year-old Kevan K Grant
• PWID
• K &I
22- year- old Angel Trent
• PWID
• K &I
36 -year -old Ricardo Rivera Colon
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
35 -year- old Alexis Matos Colon
• Aggravated Assault
• Accidents Involving Injury
• REAP (Recklessly Endangering Another Person)
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
48 -year- old Eric Encarnacion
• Criminal Conspiracy
• Possession with Intent to Distribute (PWID)
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
45 -year- old Anibal Cruz
• Criminal Conspiracy
• Possession with Intent to Distribute (PWID)
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• Knowingly and Intentionally
• Cruelty to Animals
26 -year -old Jacqueline Rodriguez
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
22 -year- old Keyshla Maria Rodriguez
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
32 -year -old Miguel Cruz
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
28- year -old Jose Roberto Felix Soto
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
25- year- old Angel Vasques
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
• Possession of Instrument of Crime (PIC)
40 -year -old Pete Rodriguez
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
44 -year -old Juan Rodriguez
• Criminal Conspiracy
• PWID
• Unlawful Use of Communication Facility
• K&I
Leave a Comment