NEW YORK — The New York Attorney General’s Office announced this Tuesday the fall of a drug trafficking network in the north of the state that has resulted in 48 arrests and the seizure of 10 kilos of fentanyl and 10 kilos of cocaine valued at 9 million dollars. .
The prosecutor, Letitia James, said in a press conference that the network, in which three criminal gangs collaborated, was “flooding” with fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and other dangerous drugs almost a dozen counties in an area in the north of the state. known as the Finger Lakes.
In the dismantling of the organization, 19 firearms have also been seized, including assault weapons and “ghost weapons” (without registration, usually assembled with parts purchased online), and $440,000 in cash.
According to a statement, the authorities began to investigate the origin of the cocaine sold in the region two years ago and reached the person of Luis Rivera, whom they accuse of directing a drug trafficking network from a residential building in Rochester where he worked as a concierge.
Rivera organized large shipments of fentanyl from California to Rochester with his son Jacob, who was in a federal prison in Louisiana but used smuggled phones to oversee operations, the note said.
Luis and Jacob Rivera are accused of “operating as a big drug trafficker”, a crime punishable by a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life imprisonment, and also of money laundering, since they had a shell company with which they invested in properties .
Two of Rivera’s other sons are also charged.
The Riveras allegedly sold fentanyl in pill form, saying it was oxycodone, a potent opioid used to treat pain, “putting its buyers at even greater risk.”
The 48 detainees, men and women residing in upstate New York whose ages range from 24 to 77, accumulate a total of 177 charges, many of them related to the sale and possession of “controlled substances” in different degrees of gravity.
