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Plinio Junior Pineda Lopez, 33, of Oakland and Lorendy Diaz Beltre De Inoa, 27, of Yonkers were arrested with 1.5 kilos of fentanyl in Wallington, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said Wednesday.
Nearly eight more kilos of hidden fentanyl were found during a court-approved search on Tuesday, July 11, of Lopez’s Hillside Avenue home just off West Oakland Avenue and down the street from an entrance/exit for Route 287, investigators said.
“The home also contained packaging materials and paraphernalia consistent with those used to package controlled substances,” the U.S. attorney said.
The couple ran a New Jersey-to-Florida drug trafficking operation, Sellinger said.
Lopez was charged with possessing and conspiring to sell fentanyl. A federal judge in Newark ordered him held on Wednesday.
De Inoa was charged with cocaine possession with the intent to sell it. She was released with electronic monitoring.
Lopez has a criminal history stemming from a major credit card scheme from nearly a decade ago that the U.S. Secret Service said involved more than $500,000 worth of purchases made with hundreds of bogus cards in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, records show.
Sellinger credited the drug takedown to special agents of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark, HSI Miami (FL), HSI Jacksonville (FL), Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, CBP Office of Field Operations, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the DEA, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Oakland police.
"Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is grateful for the partnership with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in removing deadly, illicit fentanyl from our communities while holding drug traffickers like Lopez and De Inoa accountable for their actions,” said HSI Newark Special Agent-in-Charge Ricky J. Patel.
“The trafficking of over nine kilograms of fentanyl into New Jersey is troubling, especially when only two milligrams, equivalent to just a few grains of salt, is a potentially lethal dose,” Patel said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Goldberg of Sellinger’s Organized Crime/Gang Unit in Newark is handling the case.
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