BROOKLYN — 17 defendants have been variously charged in six separate indictments with conspiracy, sale and possession of a controlled substance in connection with a narcotics trafficking ring that sold and possessed over $1 million worth of narcotics during the course of the investigation.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said said that the investigation was conducted using electronic, video and physical surveillance, and that the indictment charges that between July 2017 and April 2018, the defendants conspired to possess and sell heroin and cocaine in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. It is alleged that Ezequiel Reyes, who was based in Pennsylvania, was the boss of the narcotics ring, and a wholesale distributer who supplied many of the other defendants named in the indictment with heroin and cocaine to be resold on the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.
Furthermore, it is alleged that Reyes depended on several individuals across the country to supply him with narcotics for distribution, including Noe Lopez, a federal inmate incarcerated at the Great Plains Correctional Institution in Hinton, Oklahoma, and an individual residing in Puerto Rico.
It is alleged that Lopez, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a quantity in excess of 1000 kilograms of marijuana and five kilograms of cocaine and laundering of monetary instruments in 2005 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and was sentenced to 240 months in prison and forfeited $15 million, used a contraband cell phone to arrange large-scale sales of narcotics to Reyes. It is alleged that another individual also arranged for shipments of narcotics to Reyes from Puerto Rico.
Of the 17 defendants, 15 were arrested yesterday and today. Most of the defendants were arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. Twelve of the defendants are charged with second-degree conspiracy, which is a B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. The defendants are variously charged with operating as a major trafficker, second-degree money laundering, first-, second- and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance; second- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and related charges.
More than seven kilograms of cocaine and four kilograms of heroin were recovered during the investigation, along with more than 1,800 glassine envelopes of heroin and seven firearms.
that was mailed from Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania / DA
The case was investigated by Detective Investigators assigned to the District Attorney’s Investigations Bureau and the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF), Group T-13, comprising agents and officers of the DEA, NYPD and NYSP.
The District Attorney thanked the following for their assistance: the United States Drug Enforcement Administration NYDETF, Harrisburg, PA, Group; Postal Inspector David Heinke of United States Postal Inspection Service, Southeastern Pennsylvania; the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department; the United States Marshal Task Force in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Puerto Rico; Detective Michael Vance and other members of the Lancaster County, PA, Drug Task Force; and members of the York County, PA, District Attorney’s Office, York County Sheriff’s Department, York City Police Department, and Northern York Regional Police Department.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Scott, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bennett and Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Kyriacou, also of VCE, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Alfred C. Deingeniis, First Deputy Bureau Chief and Assistant District Attorney Nicole Chavis, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Investigations Division.
DEFENDANT ADDENDUM:
Ezequiel Reyes, 44, of York, Pennsylvania.
Noe Lopez, 59, of Great Plains Correctional Institution, Hinton, Oklahoma.
Primitivo Robles, 65, of Brooklyn, New York.
Alister Simon, 40, of Brooklyn, New York.
Carlson Small, 48, of Brooklyn, New York.
Luis Figueroa, 55, of Queens, New York.
Julio Figueroa, 49, of Queens, New York.
Rafael Davila, 46, of Bronx, New York.
Rolando Martinez-Flores, 28, of Mountville, Pennsylvania.
Maria Rolon, 57, Brooklyn, New York.
Andres Jose Sanchez, 59, Brooklyn, New York.
Raul Muniz, 52, of Queens, New York.
Luis Ortiz, 36, of Brooklyn, New York.
Jose Santiago, 57, of Brooklyn, New York.
Ricky Figueroa, 53, of Queens, New York.
