The NYPD took down a dealer who led a drug ring that sold in three New York boroughs and Connecticut yesterday (January 16). The ringleader kept a large amount of coke and heroin hidden inside a secret compartment in a Jacuzzi, as well as a pigeon coop on the roof of the stash house.
Carlos Medina, 59, and 10 others were nabbed for conspiring to deal coke and heroin in New York and across state lines according to a statement from the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office. After a yearlong wiretap investigation dubbed “Operation Rebound,” cops were able to take down Medina and seize narcotics from a supplier in Puerto Rico, cash, and several weapons.
From the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office:
During a court authorized search of MEDINA’s home, police seized approximately $40,000 cash and a drug ledger. Members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force assisted in the arrest and search.
A search of the stash house at 228 Revere Ave. in the Bronx this morning yielded two loaded .38 caliber revolvers, 3 kilograms of cocaine (nearly 7 lbs.) and a half-kilogram of heroin (more than 1 lb.). One of the revolvers, the heroin and 2 1/2 kilograms of cocaine were found inside a hidden trap in a Jacuzzi. The remaining half-kilogram of cocaine was near a pigeon coop on the roof, hidden amidst pigeon supplies. The second revolver was found in a nightstand in the bedroom.
Medina owned a Manhattan watch and jewelry store, and sold his drugs between that borough, Queens, the Bronx, and Connecticut. Medina made his home in Queens and distributed his drugs through coded language along with his co-conspirators.
To add to the haul, cops found that Medina was receiving his coke through the mail from Puerto Rico after they intercepted a package with six kilos of the powder valued at $300,000.
Hit the jump to see the NYPD’s photos from the seizure and shut down of Carlos Medina’s coke and dope operation.
[Gothamist]
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Photos: Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office
