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Reinaldo “Money” Rodriguez, 29, was part of a network that that stretched from the Bronx to Paterson and into suburban towns in three counties, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
He was arrested with a large amount of heroin, as well as a gun that, as a convicted felon, he was prohibited from having, the U.S. attorney said.
Rodriguez, also known as “Mimo,” has remained in custody since May 2016 when authorities rounded up accused members of the crew – seven of whom have already taken guilty pleas in the case.
Edwin Lopez, 32, of Elmwood Park, was sentenced last July to 13½ years in federal prison.
Carolina Almonte, 30, of the Bronx; was sentenced last May to nearly four years months in federal prison.
(Because there is no parole in the federal prison system, they must serve nearly their entire sentences.)
The rest are awaiting sentencing:
- Charlie Rodriguez, 34, of Paterson;
- Edward M. Stanel, 27, of Parsippany;
- Joseph Trimarco, 30, of Stony Point, NY;
- Juan Pablo Goris-Castellano, 27, and Victor Alfonso Alvarez Martinez, 28, of the Bronx.
The crew “amassed wholesale quantities of heroin at multiple locations in and around the Bronx and used couriers to deliver large quantities of that heroin to mid-level drug dealers operating in and around Paterson,” Carpenito said.
The heroin was either sold in the Paterson area or re-distributed to street-level drug dealers in suburban areas, he said.
“Goris-Castellano, who was based out of the Bronx, packaged and distributed large quantities of heroin to Lopez, who operated out of Paterson,” the U.S. attorney said.
“Goris-Castellano worked with his associates, Almonte and Alvarez Martinez, who brought the heroin to Lopez and returned to Goris-Castellano with Lopez’s payment for the drugs.
“Lopez then sold portions of that heroin to Charlie Rodriguez, who, working closely with Reinaldo Rodriguez, resold portions of that heroin to street-level drug dealers in Paterson and suburban areas,” he said.
Carpenito credited special agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the investigation.
It was coordinated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), a partnership among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies dedicated to identifying and dismantling the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, Carpenito said.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara F. Merin of the OCDETF/Narcotics Unit of Carpenito’s office in Newark.
ALSO SEE: An Elmwood Park man was sentenced to 13½ years in federal prison Tuesday for trafficking nearly seven pounds of heroin from Paterson to street-level buyers in Bergen, Passaic and Rockland counties.https://saddlebrook.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/elmwood-park-drug-ring-member-gets-1312-years-for-trafficking-heroin/716351/
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