Thread: $4.7M bust

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/14945772.htm

Posted on Sat, Jul. 01, 2006

Kilo of drugs tossed from car leads cops to $4.7M bust

By DANA DiFILIPPO
difilid@phillynews.com 215-854-5934

It was a routine car stop in North Philadelphia, but the driver's reaction was anything but routine.

As Sgt. Joe Farrell pulled the car over in the 4000 block of Fairhill Street, the driver chucked a kilo of cocaine out the window.

That dim-witted drug-dumping last fall launched an eight-month probe that led Philadelphia police and FBI detectives to the biggest drug bust of the year Thursday night, when they seized $4.7 million in powder cocaine after undercover buys and raids.

"The winners of this are the citizens of Philadelphia. Here is $5 million in drugs that could have been on the streets of Philadelphia and used [by] people on a daily basis," Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said yesterday.

Jody Weis, special agent in charge of Philadelphia's FBI office, agreed, saying, "Hopefully this will stop the flood of drugs into this city."

Johnson and other police and FBI bigwigs showed off the cocaine "bricks" - notebook-sized blocks wrapped in black, humidity-resistant cellophane - and $57,000 in seized cash at a news conference yesterday morning at police headquarters. Authorities have confiscated $77 million in drugs so far this year, Johnson added.

Sgt. Farrell's car stop eventually led investigators to discover the international courier operation, in which Mexican nationals brought drugs from the Southwest into Philadelphia, said Capt. Chris Werner, commander of the Narcotics Field Unit 2.

Thursday night, undercover officers did two controlled buys of 13 kilograms of cocaine before raiding an Oxford Circle home and a public-storage warehouse in Bustleton, where they found 29 more kilos of cocaine, Werner said. In the warehouse on Grant Avenue near Dungan Road, the drugs were stashed inside a sofa, he added.

Arrested on local and federal drug charges were Antonio Borrayo Salazar, 36, of Hale Street near Harbison Avenue, and Alexis Cardona-Morales, 26, of Compton, Calif.

Detectives expect to make more arrests during the ongoing investigation, Werner added.

Agents John Cataldi, James Milligan and James Crowley of the FBI, and Cpl. Greg Matulewicz, Lt. Robert Muldoon and Capt. Charlie Bloom of the Philadelphia Police Department helped lead the investigation.

Sgt. Farrell's car stop eventually led investigators to discover the international courier operation, in which Mexican nationals brought drugs from the Southwest into Philadelphia, said Capt. Chris Werner, commander of the Narcotics Field Unit 2.

whats wrong? their just dealing the drugs american's won't deal....