Bergen Prosecutor's Detective Nabs Paterson Pair With 45+ Pounds Of Coke On Route 80, Feds Say

Bergen County prosecutor’s detectives nabbed two Paterson men with more than 45 pounds of cocaine during a traffic stop, federal authorities said Thursday.

The officer received consent to search the vehicle after learning that Nieves had been busted for heroin in 2012 and getting false responses from him about when and where he bought the Kia, a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: US Attorney for New Jersey*

Jerry DeMarco

03/07/2019 10:59 a.m.

Carlos Nieves and Yocadis Montas-Cepeda, both 24, were handed over to federal agents for prosecution, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

The pair were arrested on their way from Paterson to the Bronx last November after a detective with the prosecutor’s Narcotics Task Force stopped their Kia Sorrento on eastbound Route 80 for having tinted windows.

The officer received consent to search the vehicle after learning that Nieves had been busted for heroin in 2012 and getting false responses from him about when and where he bought the Kia, a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.

Recovered from a hidden compartment in the SUV's tailgate were 30 heat-sealed, rectangular bricks weighing a kilo each, it says.

Nieves was scheduled for a court appearance Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Newark. Montas-Cepeda is expected to make his initial appearance at a later date, Carpenito said.

The U.S. attorney thanked Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo’s Narcotics Task Force for its work and credited the DEA for the investigation that produced the charges.

Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan L. O’Neill of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Newark.

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