5 alleged members of a drug trafficking group have been arrested Tuesday and accused of utilizing luxurious personal transport firms to fly tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ price of cocaine and money between Los Angeles and New York Metropolis, federal authorities stated.
The alleged ringleaders of the group — David “Gotti” Rodriguez and Raymond “White Boy” O’Connell — spent a number of years orchestrating the acquisition and storage of bulk portions of cocaine in Los Angeles to distribute throughout the East Coast earlier than their arrest on a number of drug trafficking and felony enterprise prices final yr, in response to a press release from the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California.
On Tuesday, Nohely Jimenez-Ruiz and Lorna “Cookie” Martinez of Los Angeles have been arrested in reference to the operation, the assertion stated. Jamel Donald Levy and Bruce Adams of New York and Cindy Rachel Imbert of New Jersey have been additionally arrested.
Federal authorities have accused Rodriguez and O’Connell of utilizing a downtown Los Angeles jewellery retailer as a entrance for a fancy drug operation that used luxurious freight firms to ship hid containers of cocaine to New York Metropolis’s Diamond District, beginning way back to 2013. After transport the medication over state strains by way of air, O’Connell and Rodriguez allegedly shipped the proceeds again west, the place co-conspirators are accused of laundering the cash and disseminating it by way of the group, the assertion stated.
Authorities stated that, in complete, at the very least 800 parcels containing 22 tons of cocaine have been shipped from Los Angeles to New York, with an estimated worth of about $315 million. An extra 500 parcels containing at the very least $105 million in cocaine and money have been transported from New York to Los Angeles.
Throughout the investigation, legislation enforcement seized greater than $2.8 million in money, 1,600 kilos of cocaine, and high-end vehicles and jewellery allegedly bought by the defendants, the assertion stated.
Rodriguez and O’Connell have been charged with one depend of partaking in a unbroken felony enterprise, one depend of conspiracy to distribute and possession of cocaine, cash laundering and a number of other different drug-related prices. If convicted, every might face a compulsory life sentence in federal jail, the assertion stated.
The 5 extra defendants face numerous felony conspiracy, drug trafficking and cash laundering prices, stated a spokesperson for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California.
Legislation enforcement officers are nonetheless looking for extra suspects in New York who’re believed to have participated within the group, in response to the assertion.
