Multi-million dollar cocaine ring busted, 40 suspects including two kingpins indicted
BY Bob Kappstatter and Larry Mcshane, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
New York Daily News, Friday, June 17th 2011

A $1 million-a-month Bronx cocaine ring was busted with the indictment of 40 suspects - including its two kingpins - after a two-year probe, Bronx prosecutors said Friday.

The drug operation, based in a 30-block corridor along White Plains Road, sold an estimated seven kilograms a week of crack and powdered cocaine, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said.

The ring was headed by Sean "Showboy" Nelson, 31, and Jason Weir, 27, who both face life in prison under the state's drug kingpin statute, Johnson said.

Nelson, of the Bronx, was held without bail following his arraignment before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett.

Weir, also of the Bronx, waived extradition after his arrest in Norwalk, Conn. He was expected back in the Bronx for arraignment next week.

A Bronx grand jury returned a 135-count indictment against 40 members of the ring. In addition to selling drugs, Nelson and Weir supervised the sales of street vendors inside the 47th Precinct, the indictment charges.

Some of the defendants also sold drugs to customers from upstate New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, authorities said.

Undercover detectives made more than 50 drug buys since the probe began in spring 2009, ranging from a few grams of cocaine to the purchase of 2 1/2 ounces of the drug, Johnson said.

Cops executing search warrants Thursday night and Friday morning recovered 48 ounces of crack, powdered cocaine and heroin, along with a handgun and $67,000 cash.

Prosecutors also had hundreds of taped telephone conversations linked to the drug ring, Johnson said.

Ten arrested in Fordham drug ring takedown: cops nab suspects in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico
BY Daniel Beekman, DAILY NEWS WRITER, New York Daily News, Wednesday, July 13th 2011

The FBI and NYPD busted a ruthless Fordham drug gang Wednesday morning, rounding up suspects in the Bronx, Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.

The takedown of the "Creston Ave. Crew" was the result of a lengthy investigation documenting the sale of at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and at least five kilograms of cocaine from 2004 to the present.

The crew engaged in shootings to take control of the neighborhood's drug trade from a Jamaican gang.

FBI agents arrested 10 alleged gangbangers during a 6 a.m. raid in the Bronx that turned up three guns, pounds of marijuana, cocaine and tens of thousands of dollars in cash. They also nabbed three suspects in San Juan.

All were charged with weapons possession, conspiracy to traffic narcotics, money laundering and marijuana possession. Several gangmembers are still at large.

"Today's arrests are the latest phase in an ongoing campaign to restore Bronx neighborhoods to their law-abiding residents," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice Fedarcyk.

"No matter where you live in this city, you have the right to the peaceful enjoyment of your home."

The crew was behind the drug-related murders of Christopher Santiago in 2007 and Carlos Lorenzo in 2009, both of whom were shot near the gang's main turf on Creston Ave. between E. 192nd and E. 193rd Sts., according to a 17-page federal indictment.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bahara called the crew's operation a "drug empire" that "terrorized" the neighorhood.

The blocks where the shootings occurred abut St. James Park and are near the Grand Concourse. An elementary school sits less than a block away, said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, hailing the takedown.

The Rev. Tobias Haller of Fordham's St. James Episcopal Church hailed the bust as a sign that police are serious about crushing drug activity in the neighborhood.

"I remember 20 years ago when there were shootings almost every day and beatings," he said. "The city has put a lot of effort into cleaning up St. James Park."

The Bronx arrests include ringleader Levit (Scooby Doo) Fernandini, William (El Culon) Rosa, and Luis (Gecko) Rivera.

Police say the cruel crew used violence to intimidate neighborhood residents and shot at rival drug dealers.

They imported marijuana from Texas and cocaine from Puerto Rico.

"Criminal enterprises like this one invariably resort to guns and violence to conduct their illicit business," said Fedarcyk.

"The FBI and our partners remain committed to policing drug enterprises, which peddle poison and degrade our neighborhoods."

Two big busts in New York within one week! Law enforcement has dealt a big blow to NY organized crime this summer :)

Two Bronx men busted for peddling heroin in Long Island near two schools
BY Rich Schapiro, New York Daily News, Thursday, October 6, 2011

Two Bronx men were busted for peddling heroin out of a Long Island beverage distributorship near two schools, authorities said yesterday.

Cops, in a joint Nassau-Suffolk County police operaton carried out a month-long undercover investigation into the drug dealing at Wantagh Beverage on Beltagh Ave. in Suffolk County, authorities said.

After cops purchased several bags of heroin there, Jason Cruz, 21, and Jeffrey Marmolejos, 22, of the Bronx and two other workers were collared on Tuesday, police said.

Wantagh Beverage is located near Wantagh Middle School and Wantagh High School.

Cruz was hit with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance on or near school grounds.

He was expected to be arraigned yesterday at 1st District Court in Central Islip.

Marmolejos was charged with one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was arraigned Wednesday morning.
Also arrested were Michael Schwartzman, 44, of Deer Park, L.I., and Michael Pfister, 22, of Wantagh.

Schwartzman, the owner of the store, was arrested on an outstanding Suffolk County warrant, and Pfister was charged with marijuana possession, authorities said.

Bx. raid bags 112 lbs. of coke worth $4M
By Larry Celona and Josh Saul
N.Y. Post, March 26, 2012

A weekend raid on a Bronx warehouse netted 112 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of close to $4 million, vacuum-packed inside a large safe, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

“It’s a major drug ring,” one source said. “That [amount’s] a big number.”

A two-week drug investigation by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force and the NYPD’s Bronx Narcotics led to the brick warehouse in Hunts Point at about 4 p.m. Saturday, when two men were stopped leaving the Oak Point Avenue property in a car.

Authorities obtained search warrants for the car and the warehouse after a drug-sniffing dog indicated there was contraband inside the vehicle, sources said.

One kilo — about 2.2 pounds — of cocaine and an undisclosed amount of cash were concealed in a trapdoor under the SUV’s back seat. The two men, both Hispanic and in their late 30s, were arrested.

Inside the warehouse, authorities discovered another 50 kilos of coke in vacuum-packed containers stacked inside a big double-door safe, law-enforcement sources said.

The drugs were apparently shipped to the warehouse packed inside machine parts, sources said.

Murdered Bronx gang member Abdul Garcia Jr. was on streets since 12, tried to go legit, his companion insists
By Kerry Wills, New York Daily News, Friday, June 15, 2012

At 12 years old, he was living on the streets. Twelve years later, he was dead.

Abdul “Showtime” Garcia, Jr., was found June 4 at Hoe and Aldus Aves. with five bullets in him. Cops said he was a Bloods gang member. A red bandanna adorned the sidewalk memorial to him.

Police say Garcia had a long criminal record, was a suspect in a recent shooting that paralyzed a man, and died with a gun in his back pocket.

But his common-law wife painted a different portrait.

The softspoken, petite 23-year-old woman said he was a doting father to their 4-year-old son and to her 6-year-old boy.

Garcia’s companion, who asked that her name be withheld, said she met him in 2006.

She said that he left his parents’ home after an arrest, possibly for fighting, that sent him to a youth detention center for as long as three years. When he was released he roamed from house to house, then moved into the shelter where she was staying.

“He started living there with me and my mom, and he started taking care of my son that was a month and a half, that wasn't even his,” she said.

He was known as Showtime because he was so entertaining.

Asked about his gang involvement, she said, “I don’t want to speak about it. But he was a good person...”

She said he was always looking for legitimate work. He swept subway station floors, worked in construction, moved stock at the area’s produce markets, and handed out promotional flyers for a dental clinic. But back pain from scoliosis caused him to quit or lose jobs.

He got his GED and recently took a test to enroll at Boricua College, she said.

Garcia had 33 arrests on his record and 15 convictions, including five for felonies.

His companion said that most of those were related to his marijuana use.

“He liked to smoke,” she said. “So what? It’s not killing anybody.”

Police said Garcia was arrested last year on the upper East side, in possession of a loaded gun and a skimask.

He was charged in the May 11 double-shooting at 1000 Hoe Ave., just yards from where he died.

Garcia’s companion says police released him because a video showed a larger man doing the shooting. Police said they had a witness who recanted.

“To me, it’s just a lie,” the wife said. She says Garcia was in Monticello when the May 11 shooting took place.

On June 4,

Garcia went out to get soda and juice.

“Ten minutes later somebody knocked on the door crying and they said, ‘Show is on the floor.’”

She ran out to find him face down in the street under a blanket.

“I started yelling at everybody, asking them what happened, what happened, what happened, and nobody would say nothing,” she said. “Everybody was just looking at me, like sad and everything.”

She said Garcia wanted to go somewhere quiet, like NewJersey. “He just didn’t want to be around all of this no more. He just wanted to be a family.”