Three Bronx men have been charged with conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States by arranging for a citizen of the Dominican Republic to swallow drugs and fly them into John F. Kennedy Airport, the Queens District Attorney’s Office announced Friday, March 22. The drug carrier was also arrested.
The announcement came from Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, joined by Port Authority Police Superintendent Michael A. Fedorko and Port Authority Police Chief John Ryan.
Brown identified the defendants as Jarrol De La Cruz, 20, Pedro DeLeon, 34, Edward Rivera, 30, all from the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Sergio Feliz Feliz, 19, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
According to Brown, the arrests are 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.
“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. However, thanks to the diligent efforts of the Port Authority Police and members of my staff, their alleged scheme was foiled,” Brown said.
According to the charges, on December 1, 2012 at approximately 6 p.m. Port Authority Police conducted a car stop of a burgundy Chevy Impala on the Van Wyck Expressway in which the defendants De La Cruz, DeLeon, Cruz and Feliz were riding. Later, Feliz reportedly admitted to authorities he had swallowed 80 pellets containing cocaine and was taken to a local Queens hospital where he passed the pellets, containing an excess of eight ounces.
De La Cruz, DeLeon and Rivera are presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging them each with 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 December 5, 2012, before Queens Criminal Court Judge John Zoll and was held on $200,000 bail. His next court date is April 9, 2013. If convicted, each of the four defendants faces up to ten years in prison.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
