Pubdate: Wed, 9 Feb 2000
Source: Star-Ledger (NJ)
Copyright: 2000 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
Contact:  1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J., 07102-1200
Website: http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Forum: http://forums.nj.com/
Author: Matthew Futterman, Staff Writer

SCRATCH TWO TONS OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

In one of the biggest drug busts in New Jersey history, the State Police
seized nearly a ton each of cocaine and marijuana with an estimated street
value of $100 million, State Police Superintendent Carson Dunbar announced
yesterday.

The seizures, which took place Sunday outside a warehouse in Bergen County
and at the New Jersey Turnpike's Vince Lombardi Service Area, followed two
days of around-the-clock surveillance by the State Police after they
received a tip about the shipment.

Police arrested four men and a woman from New York City and an Arizona man
during the bust. All were being held without bail at Bergen County Jail on
charges of possessing and conspiring to distribute 1,870 pounds of cocaine
and 1,900 pounds of marijuana. Police also recovered more than $86,000 in
cash and a 9 mm handgun.

Dunbar said the seizure stemmed from a new State Police strategy of going
after major players in the local drug trade instead of concentrating on the
small amounts of drugs seized during routine traffic stops and searches
along the state's major highways.

The drug cache -- much of it discovered underneath cartons of moldy yellow
peppers in a tractor-trailer -- was worth nearly half as much as all the
narcotics the State Police found in 1999, officials said. Last year's
seizures included $120 million worth of cocaine from a Secaucus warehouse.

"You have heard a lot about the activity on the Turnpike and the Parkway,"
said Dunbar, alluding to State Police traffic stops that were later
attributed to racial profiling, "but in this one seizure we eclipsed all the
drugs that were seized just on the roadways last year."

Assistant Attorney General Barry Goas, director of the Statewide Narcotics
Task Force, said he has never seen a case in which police were able to
recover two narcotics in such massive amounts.

The investigation began Friday after undercover detectives with the
Narcotics and Organized Crime Bureau received a tip that a large amount of
drugs stored in a warehouse in Fairview was being prepared for resale on the
streets, State Police spokesman John Hagerty said.

According to Hagerty, a surveillance operation was immediately set up
outside the warehouse at 779 Fairview Ave., where a white tractor-trailer
leased from Eran Trucking Inc. in Newark was stored inside. Police began
tailing the men traveling to and from the warehouse.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., another white Eran Trucking tractor-trailer arrived at
the warehouse, then left just minutes later and headed to the Vince Lombardi
Service Area on the Turnpike in nearby Ridgefield. A short time later, the
tractor-trailer inside the warehouse emerged. It, too, went to the service
area, and parked next to the other truck.

At the same time, a brown and tan van arrived at the warehouse and drove
inside. An hour later, the van emerged so loaded with cargo that its bumper
was dragging on the ground.

Detectives stopped the van, searched it, and uncovered the cocaine packed in
55-pound bricks, and arrested Francisco Reyes, 25, and Carlos Torres, 32,
both of the Bronx, Hagerty said.

Police then radioed the team at the service area to move in. After obtaining
a search warrant, detectives found nothing in one of the trucks, but the
other -- the one they saw stored in the warehouse -- yielded boxes of rotten
vegetables and a secret compartment. Combing through the boxes and the
compartment, the team found 109 bundles of marijuana in packages of various
sizes.

"Considering the aged state of the yellow peppers, we think it's pretty
obvious that those vegetables had served as a cover for a significant period
of time," Hagerty said.

Lt. Ken Hess, supervisor of the State Police Narcotics Bureau, said the
vegetables served as a physical cover but were not able to disguise the
scent of the drugs from police dogs.

The second truck, too, had a secret compartment near the front of the
trailer, Hagerty noted.

Arrested at the service area were Edgar Garcia, 26, of Nogales, Ariz., who
was with the drug-filled truck, William Caraballo, 43, and Anthony Manzanet,
30, of the Bronx and Jacqueline Nunez, 35, of Manhattan, Hagerty said.
Yesterday the four were still awaiting their first appearance in court on
the charges.

The drug bust was the largest for the State Police in 13 months, since
detectives seized cocaine with a wholesale value of about $30 million and a
street value of $120 million inside a warehouse in Secaucus. That cocaine
was hidden inside cartons of cauliflower.

Dunbar declined comment on where the latest cache of drugs came from, saying
police are tracking down other suspects who might have been involved in the
operation elsewhere.

Dunbar said the owners of the Fairview warehouse and the truck-leasing
company are legitimate businessmen who unwittingly rented to drug
traffickers. Authorities believe it was the traffickers who created the
secret compartments in the vehicles.

State Police said the bust put a dent in the illicit drug industry operating
throughout the region. "It hurts them," said Hagerty. "But it doesn't knock
them out."
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