Flew In Man With Belly Full Of Drugs
Three Bronx men have been charged with conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States via the Dominican Republic by arranging for a citizen of that Caribbean nation to swallow the drugs and fly them undetected into John F. Kennedy Airport. The drug courier has also been arrested.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified the defendants as Jarrol De La Cruz, 20, Pedro DeLeon, 34, Edward Rivera, 30, all the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Sergio Feliz Feliz, 19, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
De La Cruz, DeLeon and Rivera were each chargedwith first- and second degree attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree conspiracy and fourth-degree criminal facilitation.
The fourth defendant, Felix, was arraigned on Dec. 5, 2012, before Queens Criminal Court Judge John Zoll and ordered held on $200,000 bail. His next court date is Apr. 9.
If convicted, each of the four defendants faces up to 10 years in prison.
“The defendants are accused of using a drug ‘mule’ to transport illicit drugs into this country in an apparent effort to conceal their activities from law enforcement,” Brown said in a statement. “However, thanks to the diligent efforts of the Port Authority Police and members of my staff, their alleged scheme was foiled.”
Reportedly, the arrests were part of a long-term narcotics investigation involving the defendants and the airports, which is under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority Police Department. The investigation involved physical surveillance, court-authorized electronic eavesdropping and other investigative techniques.
According to the charges, Rivera and an unknown male had a conversation on Nov. 26, 2012, indicating that a shipment of drugs was coming through the airport, Brown said.
Four days later, Rivera and two other individuals are alleged to have had a conversation with Feliz in which they instructed him to which address he should go to after he arrived in New York.
On Dec. 1, 2012, various conversations were allegedly intercepted, including one in which Rivera told an unknown male that he would bring DeLeon and De La Cruz to the airport and one would stay in the car and the other two would go into the terminal.
It is additionally alleged that at approximately 6 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2012, Port Authority Police conducted a car stop on the Van Wyck Expressway, west of the Federal Circle Exit at JFK Airport, of a burgundy Chevy Impala, in which the defendants De La Cruz, DeLeon, Cruz and Feliz were riding.
It is further alleged that Feliz admitted to authorities that he had swallowed 80 pellets containing cocaine. Taken to a local Queens hospital, Feliz allegedly passed the pellets, which contained cocaine in excess of eight ounces.
The investigation was conducted by Port Authority Detectives John F. Reilly, Anthony Greene, Christopher Martinez, Anibal Villaverde, Aida Carrasco, French Pearson, Donald Conklin and Alan Lew, Detective Sergeants Barbara Heim, Boris Perdomo and Kenneth White and Lieutenant Jose Alba.
Assistant District Attorney Antara D. Kanth of the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau is prosecuting the case under the immediate supervision of Assistant District Attorney Catherine C. Kane, Chief of the District Attorney’s Airport Investigations Unit, and under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, bureau chief, and Mark L. Katz, deputy bureau chief.
