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Jorge Aponte-Guzman, age 33, Nelson Agramonte,-Minaya, age 37, and Carlos Maisonet-Lopez, age 32, have been indicted in federal court this week following their arrests in September that led to the seizure of 920 kilograms of cocaine.
“A seizure of this magnitude underscores the critical importance of working together with our federal and local law enforcement partners in the DEA Westchester Task Force,” Westchester County Police Commissioner Thomas Gleason said.
“The tremendous work and dedication of the DEA and Task Force Investigators has interrupted a major drug distribution operation and prevented approximately one ton of dangerous, illegal narcotics from being distributed on the streets of our area.”
US Attorney Damian Williams said that on Wednesday, Sept. 29, Aponte-Guzman traveled in a rental van from a loading dock in New Jersey to a New Jersey residence, where he was met by his alleged co-conspirators.
Inside the rental van driven by Aponte-Guzman, Williams said that police seized approximately 460 kilograms of cocaine that were packaged inside 10 large metal lawn rollers.
Records relating to the shipment of the lawn rollers indicate that the lawn rollers were shipped from Puerto Rico to New Jersey, with a consignee in the Bronx, New York.
The following day, Williams said that DEA agents seized a similar shipment of 10 large metal lawn rollers from the same loading dock in New Jersey, where an additional 460 kilograms of cocaine were seized.
“A multimillion-dollar storm of cocaine was seized before it could wreak havoc in the Northeast,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan said. “Over one ton of cocaine was seized, making it the largest cocaine seizure destined for the streets of New York in over a decade.
“This seizure signifies a shift in the illegal drug landscape in New York, with cocaine seizures rising more than 150 percent in the last year,” he continued. “DEA and our law enforcement partners will continue to guard against drug trafficking organizations’ tactics and techniques to smuggle drugs into our country.”
Aponte-Guzman, Agramonte-Minaya, and Maisonet Lopez were each charged with conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine.
If convicted, they face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
Williams said that he “praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York Division of the DEA, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, and the Mount Vernon Police Department.
Williams also “thanked the Westchester Resident Office of the DEA, the Port Authority Police Department, the New Rochelle Police Department, the Port Chester Police Department, the White Plains Police Department, and the Yonkers Police Department for their assistance in the investigation."
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