5 alleged members of a drug trafficking group had been arrested Tuesday and accused of utilizing luxurious personal delivery corporations to fly a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ price of cocaine and money between Los Angeles and New York Metropolis, federal authorities mentioned.
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 expenses final yr, in accordance with an announcement 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 had been arrested in reference to the operation, the assertion mentioned. Jamel Donald Levy and Bruce Adams of New York and Cindy Rachel Imbert of New Jersey had been additionally arrested.
Federal authorities have accused Rodriguez and O’Connell of utilizing a downtown Los Angeles jewellery retailer as a entrance for a posh drug operation that used luxurious freight corporations to ship hid containers of cocaine to New York Metropolis’s Diamond District, beginning way back to 2013. After delivery the medication over state traces 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 mentioned.
Authorities mentioned that, in complete, not less than 800 parcels containing 22 tons of cocaine had been shipped from Los Angeles to New York, with an estimated worth of about $315 million. A further 500 parcels containing not less than $105 million in cocaine and money had been transported from New York to Los Angeles.
In the course of the investigation, legislation enforcement seized greater than $2.8 million in money, 1,600 kilos of cocaine, and high-end automobiles and jewellery allegedly bought by the defendants, the assertion mentioned.
Rodriguez and O’Connell have been charged with one depend of partaking in a seamless felony enterprise, one depend of conspiracy to distribute and possession of cocaine, cash laundering and several other different drug-related expenses. If convicted, every may face a compulsory life sentence in federal jail, the assertion mentioned.
The 5 extra defendants face varied felony conspiracy, drug trafficking and cash laundering expenses, mentioned a spokesperson for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California.
Regulation enforcement officers are nonetheless looking for extra suspects in New York who’re believed to have participated within the group, in accordance with the assertion.
