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Ronald Green, Jose Rodriguez, Brandon Segar
(MUGSHOTS: Bergen County Prosecutor)
They chased a fourth man who first tried to mow then down and then sped away in a separate car on Route 46, hitting other vehicles along the way, before racing across the George Washington Bridge and vanishing.
The undercover officer from Bergen County was discussing the purchase of two kilograms of heroin for $100,000 from Jose Rodriguez, a 56-year-old widower from Union City, as they walked through the hotel parking lot when 40-year-old Ronald Green of Queens emerged from a nearby car, Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
Green walked up to the investigator and pointed a semi-automatic handgun at his head, the prosecutor said.
Yohan Balcacer (MUGSHOT: NYPD)
“Arrest and back-up units immediately moved in” and grabbed Green, Rodriguez and Brandon Segar, 31, of downtown Manhattahn, who was sitting in the back of Green’s Chevy Malibu, Molinelli said.
Next thing they knew, a Toyota Camry suddenly barreled toward the officers. Driven by a man identified as Yohan Balcacer, of East Elmhurst, it hit several cars in heavy traffic on Route 46.
Police cruisers from Ridgefield Park and Leonia chased a speeding Balcacer to the bridge, then broke off the pursuit as he sped across the Hudson River crossing.
Balcacer was arrested in a Queens apartment at 6 a.m. yesterday by members of the U.S. Marshals Service NY / NJ Regional Fugitive Apprehension Task Force and the NYPD, Molinelli said.
At the hotel parking lot, detectives found two loaded semi-automatic handguns: a Smith and Wesson 9 mm Model 915, reported stolen out of Florida, and a Ruger 9mm Model P95 with a defaced serial number, Molinelli said.
The prosecutor said Rodriguez was part of a crew that tried selling heroin to the undercover detective earlier this month.
Tipped off that three men were delivering a huge amount of raw heroin from Hudson County to a Bergen County hotel, officers set up surveillance points along the main thoroughfares between the two counties.
Eventually, they spotted the Ford Expedition they were looking for headed south on Grand Avenue in Fairview into Ridgefield. After getting stuck in traffic at a police-manned construction site, the driver pulled a U-turn and headed back towards North Bergen, Molinelli said.
The detectives pulled the car over on Kennedy Boulevard and found 900 grams of raw, uncut heroin worth a whopping $1.2 million. They arrested the trio.
Rodriguez, who wasn’t in the car, didn’t make the connection and stayed in touch with the undercover cop, arranging Tuesday’s meeting in Ridgefield Park, Molinelli said.
Green is charged with attempted murder. He, Segar and Rodriguez are also charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery, in addition to drug and weapons offenses.
The three were quietly arraigned in Hackensack on Wednesday as the search for Balcacer continued. They are being held on $500,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
Balcacer remains in NYPD custody pending an extradition hearing. For now, he is charged with the same offenses as the others, but Molinelli said prosecutors will seek to have him also indicted on attempted murder charges. Balcacer is expected in court in Hackensack on Tuesday.
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