Six Indicted After Cocaine Seizure Near Times Square Hotel
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Indictments have been handed down in the case of 105 pounds of cocaine seized near a Times Square hotel last month.
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The indictment was announced Monday by city Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan and State Police Superintendent Joseph A. D'Amico.
The six indicted as cocaine traffickers could have passed for tourists if narcotics investigators hadn't known better, authorities said Monday.
State police were on their tail and watching as two of them strolled out of the Crowne Plaza hotel carrying suitcases.
Fernando Alvarado put his luggage in the trunk of a silver BMW and drove off. Luis Cuevas-Muniz put his suitcase into a parked livery cab, hopped in, and was driven away, but the cab dropped him just a block away and he walked back to the hotel without the suitcase.
Investigators followed and stopped both cars and recovered the 105 pounds of cocaine from the suitcases on October 25.
The plane tickets of the defendants showed that they had flown from San Juan, Puerto Rico to New York City to deliver the drugs.
