PASSAIC DRUG RAID NETS TWO ARRESTS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Police in the City of Passaic said Saturday that they raided a cocaine-packaging shop on Third Street and made two arrests.

Late Friday night, officers armed with warrants searched three apartments at 155 Third St. controlled by Ana Marie Burgos, said Capt. Richard Wolak, Police Narcotic Squad commander.

Burgos, 37, who lives in one of the apartments, and Angel Domingo Laboy, 28, of Monroe St., Passaic, were arrested.

Wolak said officers found $4,100, cocaine valued at $20,000 in $20, $100, and $500 packages, and 4 ounces of loose cocaine. They found material to dilute cocaine, packaging equipment, scales, and screens, he said.

“What was unique about this is that in this one building they had three separate apartments and they would move the cocaine from apartment to apartment to avoid detection and apprehension. . . . They were stash pads, basically,” Wolak said.

Burgos and Laboy were each charged with possession of more than 5 ounces of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, distribution of cocaine within a school zone, and maintaining a drug-production facility.

Burgos was being held Saturday in the Passaic County Jail on $150,000 bail; Laboy was being held on $75,000 bail.

Two of the charges possession of more than 5 ounces of cocaine and maintaining a drug-production facility are first-degree offenses punishable by prison sentences of 25 years to life.

Notes: Passaic page

DRUG DEALER RIVALRY HELPS COPS TIP LEADS TO ARREST OF 2 MEN

Byline: By Michael O. Allen and John Cichowski, Record Staff Writers | Monday, April 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

When Harry Kittrell returned from New York City early Saturday allegedly with a stash of cocaine and crack vials a convoy of police were waiting for him and a companion as their car crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey.
Police said Kittrell is the latest reputed narcotics dealer to be turned in by rivals in a growing pattern of double-crosses that have become common in local drug traffic wars.
“There’s no better way to eliminate your competition than call the cops and `rat them out,” reasoned one narcotics detective.
“It happens all the time,” said Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso. “One dealer cheats another out of a couple of thousand dollars, so he waits for the day he can turn him in. “
Hackensack police believe the anonymous call they received at 1 a.m. Saturday came from a rival of Kittrell’s. The caller told them the make and model of the car he would be driving, and the time he was expected back from the city with drugs.
About 15 unmarked police cars, including state troopers and Port Authority police, kept the 23-year-old Hackensack man under surveillance after his car entered Fort Lee and drove to Lodi, said Port Authority Police Officer Peter Heller and Hackensack police Capt. John Aletta.
As the car left one jurisdiction and entered another along Routes 80 and 17, various police departments took up the surveillance, said police. They finally pulled Kittrell’s car over in a parking lot off Essex Street in Lodi, said Heller.
Police said Kittrell, of 185 Pine St., Hackensack, and James Johnson, 28, address unknown, had chunks of rock cocaine hidden in a plastic sandwich bag and a supply ofcrack vials. They were charged with drug possession, possession with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Kittrell was being held in lieu of $15,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. He had been out on bail from a November arrest for possession of heroin in Hackensack. Johnson was being held in lieu of $7,500 bail.
Police said Johnson, whom police described as Kittrell’s accomplice, declined to respond at first when he was read his rights. But a few moments later, police said, he began spitting rock cocaine out of his mouth.
Law enforcement authorities said it is becoming more common for drug dealers to inform police about their competitors.
“Nobody announces to police that he’s a rival drug dealer, but the type of information you’re getting generally can only come from a few kinds of sources, and one of them is a competitor,” said Passaic County Prosecutor Ronald S. Fava. “Usually, it’s some kind of grievance that prompts the call, like a turf war or a money dispute.”
An urban narcotics officer, who asked not to be identified, said competitors and spurned lovers often are the best sources for drug information.
“Sometimes a competitor will ask the ex-girlfriend about the route, then he’ll call police with the information,” said the narcotics officer. “It’s the least violent way to kill off the competition.”

Keywords: POLICE; DRUG

HACKENSACK SHOOTING VICTIM HELD; POLICE SAY HE RAN COCAINE RING

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 28-year-old city resident who was paralyzed last month in what New York police called a drug-related shootout was arrested Friday on drug and weapon charges as he came out of a hospital.
Juan Cuevas, now wheelchair-bound, had just attended a physical-therapy session at Hackensack Medical Center when police arrested him at noon, Police Chief William Iurato said.
Cuevas was charged with possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine, and possession of drug paraphernalia as a result of a police raid on his home last month. He was released after his wife paid 10 percent of $5,000 bail.
Iurato said police will move to seize Cuevas single-family, Colonial-style house at 385 Summit Ave. because he operated a large-scale cocaine ring there. Cuevas purchased the house for $275,000 in August, the chief said.
“At this point we don’t know how sophisticated the operation was, but the home was protected by a sophisticated surveillance and burglar-alarm system,” Iurato said.
New York City police found the bullet-riddled bodies of four men, including Cuevas, at 620 S. 147th St. in Manhattan on Dec. 16. Two of the men were dead. Cuevas, who had been shot in the chest and lungs, and the fourth man were hospitalized.
Acting on a tip from an anonymous caller on Dec. 18, the Hackensack Police Narcotics Unit arrested his wife, Elizabeth Cuevas, 23, his brother, Jose Cuevas, 24, and Anselmo Pineda, 37, at the house. During the arrest, Hackensack police found a .45-caliber handgun, scales used to weigh drugs, burglar alarms, signaling devices, and surveillance cameras in and outside the house, including one in a birdhouse.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; SHOOTING; VICTIM; DRUG; CRIME

COCAINE COURIER SUSPECT ARRESTED; HACKENSACK COPS TARGET N.Y.C. RING

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, December 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 26-year-old Bronx man carrying cocaine for a New York City drug-trafficking ring walked into a trap Wednesday when he tried to sell an ounce of cocaine to narcotics officers, police say.

Ernesto Restrepo was being held in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail on charges of possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of the drug within 1,000 feet of a school, police said.

The Hackensack police narcotics division also seized from the suspect a 1989 Ford Taurus equipped with a two-way radio, said Capt. John Aletta, chief of investigations. The New York-based drug ring uses such radios to communicate with potential customers, Aletta said.

The one ounce of almost pure cocaine was worth about $1,500, but its value could have ballooned when processed into other forms of the drug, Aletta said.

Members of the city detective and narcotics divisions began working on the case about a week ago when they received information about the ring’s operation in the area, Aletta said. He declined to tell the exact location of the arrest, but said it was in the area of 400 Hackensack Ave., near the Bergen County Vocational-Technical School.

After ordering the drug by radio and agreeing to meet the courier in a parking lot in the area, Detective Sgts. Michael Mordaga, Robert Wright, Allen Ust, and Walter Krakowski arrived at about 10 p.m. and arrested Restrepo at the conclusion of the transaction, Aletta said.

TRUCK CARRIED OLIVE OIL, $5M IN COKE

By Michael O. Allen and Bill Sanderson, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, October 20, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A routine police inspection of a truck carrying olive oil led to the seizure of 393 pounds of cocaine valued at more than $5 million, the largest drug shipment seized on New Jersey highways this year, officials said.

State troopers followed the truck when it left a weighing station in South Jersey at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and arrested four men as they unloaded the cocaine that evening in Edgewater. A fifth suspect was charged in Salem County.

State police spokesman Dan Cosgrove said Trooper Manuel Gordillo was inspecting the truck on Interstate 295, at Carneys Point Township in Salem County, when he noticed fluid leaking from the rear of the truck.

Gordillo saw the cocaine behind the olive oil after being permitted to search, but he allowed the truck to leave, Cosgrove said. Gordillo, members of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, and Salem and Bergen County police then followed the truck to the Havana Potato Truck Lot on River Road in Edgewater, he said.

Superior Court Judge Marguerite T. Simon in Hackensack set bail at $2.5 million each for four of the suspects, identified as Gonzalo Castellanos-Arroyave of North Bergen, Milton G. Vera of Queens, Edson G. Pantoja of Miami, and Alejandro Lumus of Miami.

They were charged with possession of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy and were being held in the Bergen County Jail Friday.

A fifth man, Lidio Ocana of Union City, the truck’s driver, was charged with the same offenses and was being held in the Salem County Jail on $2 million bail.

Cosgrove said the seizure was the first fruit of “Operation Roadside,” started with $478,000 in federal funds in July to combine state troopers and the commercial transport industries in a program emphasizing interdiction and public awareness.

Correction: CLARIFICATION: An article in Saturday’s editions reported that four men were arrested on drug charges in a truck lot in Edgewater. The company that leases the lot, Havana Potato Co., was neither implicated nor involved in the incident, state police said. (PUBLISHED, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1990, PAGE a02.)