FLUSHING — A Corona man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of cocaine sales to an undercover police detective near a Flushing school for the deaf, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said this week.
Jorge Enrique Nieto Palomino, 29, was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted of criminal sale of a controlled substance following a six-month investigation into the Corona resident who arranged on Craigslist to sell the cocaine to the detective. In addition to the 15 years in prison, Palomino will have to spend five years in supervision after he is released.
During the investigation, officials from the NYPD and the Queens district attorney’s office determined Palomino was a member of a drug ring that used Craigslist to sell cocaine by posting advertisements which at first glance appeared innocuous. Some of the ads were purportedly for ski equipment or ski instructor services.
Those who answered these advertisements, however, learned that neither ski equipment nor ski services were offered, but rather “ski” and “snow” were coded references to cocaine, the DA said.
The undercover police detective arranged to purchase the cocaine on four occasions between January 2008 and June 2008. Each transaction occurred within 1,000 feet of the Lexington School for the Deaf at 26-26 75th St. in Flushing.
