New York City police on Friday said they seized 580 pounds of cocaine worth $10 million, the largest cocaine seizure in the city in decades. File Photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
Aug. 28 (UPI) — New York City police on Friday said they seized 580 pounds of cocaine worth $10 million, the largest cocaine seizure in the city in decades.
Nelson Salcedo, 35 of New Jersey, was arrested while moving several boxes hiding cocaine from a self-storage facility in Queens.
“This was a massive shipment of narcotics, tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the New York Post.
“And because of the work of the investigators standing with me today, those drugs will never make it into the streets of New York City.”
Police began following Salcedo on Aug. 12, when he was spotted dropping off packages believed to contain drugs near the north end of Central Park.
Then on Wednesday, officers spotted the suspect loading boxes into a van registered to an elevator repair company.
Police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents recovered 230 bricks containing 580 pounds of cocaine.
“This appears to be the largest single cache of cocaine my office has seized in 20 years,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan told the New York Daily News.
“Thanks to our investigators and our law enforcement partners in this case, these drugs will never make it onto the streets of New York City.”
Salcedo and two suspected accomplices were arrested.
He was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance.