Officials seize New York's largest amount of cocaine in over a decade
Federal investigators have seized more than 1 ton of cocaine from an alleged drug trafficking organization, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York announced Tuesday. The bust is the largest cocaine seizure destined for the streets of New York in more than a decade, officials said.
"A multimillion-dollar storm of cocaine was seized before it could wreak havoc in the Northeast," said Ray Donovan, the special agent in charge of the DEA's New York division. "DEA and our law enforcement partners will continue to guard against drug trafficking organizations' tactics and techniques to smuggle drugs into our country."
Jorge Aponte-Guzman, Nelson Agramonte-Minaya, and Carlos Maisonet-Lopez were indicted Monday and were charged with conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine, authorities said. If convicted, each defendant could face a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Aponte-Guzman allegedly traveled to meet Maisonet-Lopez and Agramonte-Minaya around September 29 in a rental van, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court on Monday. Law enforcement officers seized approximately 1,014 pounds of cocaine packed inside of large metal lawn rollers from the vehicle, officials said. The cocaine was allegedly shipped from Puerto Rico to New Jersey and was en route to the Bronx, New York, according to investigators.
Then around September 30, officials seized another 1,014 pounds of cocaine from the same loading dock that Aponte-Guzman had visited the day before.
Cocaine seizures in New York have risen more than 150% in the last year, Donovan said. In 2019, cocaine was involved in more than half of New York City's total overdose deaths, according to New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Across the country, cocaine seizures increased by 11% in September alone, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Thomas Gleason, the police commissioner in Westchester County, said the massive seizure "underscores the critical importance of working together with our federal and local law enforcement partners."
"The tremendous work and dedication of the DEA and Task Force Investigators has interrupted a major drug distribution operation and prevented approximately one ton of dangerous, illegal narcotics from being distributed on the streets of our area," he said in a statement.