By Sarina Trangle
A Long Island man convicted of gun possession and conspiring to sell cocaine out of a Kew Gardens bodega was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday, the Queens district attorney said.
A jury convicted Jaime Corchado, of Baldwin, L.I., on five charges stemming from cocaine and marijuana found under the refrigerated counter of a shop he once owned, at 85-56 118th St., called Louis’s Deli & Grocery and two guns discovered in his home, according to District Attorney Richard Brown.
Brown’s office said Corchado was sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision Monday.
“The defendant used his mom-and-pop grocery store as a front to traffic in narcotics. Drugs and guns are a deadly combination. This joint investigation by the Queens district attorney’s office and the New York City Police Department once again underscores our commitment to rid our county of illegal narcotics trafficking and to improve the quality of life of our Queens residents,” Brown said in a statement.
Corchado’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
Brown said a long-term narcotics investigation uncovered Corchado, 37, agreeing to sell an “eight ball” of cocaine to someone over the phone Dec. 17, 2010.
Officers then watched the customer climb into Corchado’s black 2008 Mercedes-Benz Sedan near the corner of 69th Street and Forest Park and emerge after a brief transaction.
They stopped the customer 15 feet away and found a plastic bag containing cocaine in his pants pocket, Brown said.
The DA said a wiretap placed on Corchado’s phone between November 2010 and August 2011 captured him engaging in hundreds of conversations about narcotics.
Then on Aug. 17, 2011, police searched his convenience store and recovered two plastic bags of cocaine, two bags of marijuana and a scale from beneath the refrigerated countertop, according to the DA.
Later that night, Brown said police went to his home in Baldwin and seized a Sig Saber ,380-caliber pistol, a Winchester single-barrel shotgun with a magnifying scope, magazines and close to 100 rounds of ammunition.
Corchado was arrested and later convicted of controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, criminally using drug paraphernalia, unlawful possession of marijuana and conspiracy, according to Brown.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
