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COURIER L 16 IFE, SEPT. 18-24, 2020
Ten busted in lucrative
Brooklyn cocaine ring
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
A global pandemic couldn’t bust
up a Brooklyn cocaine ring — but
law enforcement agents did the job.
Ten alleged peddlers were charged
Monday for selling hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of cocaine in
three Brooklyn neighborhoods at infl
ated prices during the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the spring,
prosecutors announced.
According to Special Narcotics
Prosecutor for the City of New York
Bridget Brennan, the drug ring’s
leaders — Miguel Rivera, 42, of Myrtle
Avenue in Glendale, and Alberto
Bota, 55, of Brooklyn — took advantage
of the shortened supply of street
drugs, and users, during the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic created
cocaine supply shortages that
allowed alleged high-level drug traffi
ckers Rivera and Bota to price gouge
their desperate clientele,” Brennan
said. “For them, the crisis provided
an opportunity to charge some of the
highest prices for cocaine seen in
New York City in recent years.”
Law enforcement agents — including
the NYPD Brooklyn North
Overdose Squad and Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s offi
ce — worked together to break up
the lucrative drug ring through an
investigation that dated back to August
2019.
The probe came following a nonfatal
overdose at the Farragut Houses
public housing complex. Investigators
linked the overdose to a streetlevel
organization known for pushing
heroin, fentanyl and cocaine in
and around Park Slope, Gowanus
and Sunset Park.
In the months that followed, undercover
offi cers made more than
20 purchases of narcotics, totaling
$16,000, from peddlers at the Farragut
Houses and near the Barclays
Center.
The investigation also found that
Assorted items seized from the Brooklyn
ring. Special Narcotics Prosecutor of the City of
New York
Rivera and Bota worked as a team to
purchase kilograms of cocaine multiple
times each month, meeting up
frequently in Park Slope and Gowanus
to arrange deals. They paid up
to $50,000 per kilogram of cocaine —
up to 50 percent higher than the typical
street price for the powder — and
then fl ipped it at an additional 3-5
percent markup to customers.
Through wiretaps and surveillance,
detectives learned that Rivera
had bought at least fi ve kilograms
of cocaine at $250,000. Most of the
purchases were made in Brooklyn,
and on two occasions, he allegedly
bought cocaine from another dealer,
Angel Rodriguez, in Ridgewood,
Queens.
The ten suspects arrested were
variously charged with operating as
a major traffi cker, conspiracy, criminal
sale of a controlled substance,
criminal possession of a controlled
substance, criminal possession of
a weapon, criminal possession of a
fi rearm and criminally using drug
paraphernalia.
718-278-3900
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