NEW YORK — Officials today announced the indictment of a Mexico-based drug kingpin and five others in a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle multi-kilogram quantities of fentanyl and heroin from Mexico for distribution in the New York City area.
In an indictment filed by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) for the City of New York Francisco Quiroz-Zamora , aka “Gordo,” is charged with New York State’s top narcotics charge, Operating as a Major Trafficker, as well as Conspiracy in the Second Degree and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree. The charges follow a long-term investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force, Financial Investigations Team (FIT) and SNP’s Investigators Unit. Quiroz-Zamora and his five co-defendants are scheduled to be arraigned today in Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice Felicia Mennin, Part 22, 111 Centre Street.
The indictment identifies Quiroz-Zamora, 41, as the Mexican-based source of recent large fentanyl shipments to New York City. The investigation revealed he had been involved in high-level trafficking for a number of years. A resident of San José del Cabo, Quiroz-Zamora arranged for narcotics to be smuggled from Mexico to Arizona and California via trucks, cars and drug couriers. He communicated directly with New York City-based narcotics customers and arranged for members of his trafficking network to conduct transactions.
Quiroz-Zamora is charged in connection with more than 20 kilograms of fentanyl (44 pounds) seized at the Umbrella Hotel in the Bronx on June 19, 2017 and on Manhattan’s Central Park West on August 4, 2017. During that time period, he received approximately $22,500 from an undercover officer via Western Union and wire transfer.
Quiroz-Zamora travelled to New York City on November 27, 2017 for the alleged purpose of collecting an additional narcotics payment from the undercover officer. However, agents were waiting to arrest him at New York Penn Station, having tracked his travel cross-country. Quiroz-Zamora took a circuitous route from Texas to New York, flying by commercial airline from Texas to Connecticut and then making his way to Delaware, where he boarded an Amtrak train to New York. Originally charged in a criminal complaint, Quiroz-Zamora was previously arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on November 29, 2017 and ordered held without bail.
