An investigation into two Bay Ridge drug dens is still bearing fruit.
This time, the fruits are tropical oranges caked with cocaine.
Officials from the Kings County District Attorney’s office headed down to Florida last week to apprehend a Miami drug trafficker who they claim is responsible for supplying narcotics to drug dealers on 93rd Street as well as a drug crew who wantonly operated throughout the borough.
Yotuhel Montane, 36, allegedly supplied several kilos of cocaine to the Bay Ridge dealers, Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a recent press conference.
“This case is another example of the lengths my office will go to ensure the safety of Brooklyn’s streets and its residents,” Hynes said.
Some investigators follow the money. Others follow the cocaine.
Hynes said that information from the June 2008 arrest of five drug dealers operating out of two homes on 93rd Street led detective investigators from the Major Narcotics Investigations Bureau to another crew of drug dealers operating out of the borough.
Prosecutors took down that crew, allegedly led by Eric “Fat Eddy” Rodriguez in April. Forty-three people were arrested for taking part in the ring, where dispatchers would send out drivers to deliver crack to buyers in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Park Slope, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, Bensonhurst, Bushwick and Williamsburg.
During their investigation, prosecutors learned that Montane was allegedly Rodriguez’s main supplier.
An indictment filed by prosecutors last week alleges that Rodriguez and members of his crew would fly to Miami to meet Montane to buy kilograms of cocaine. Rodriguez would then fly back to New York, while the people who worked for him would drive the drugs to Brooklyn, where the cocaine would be made into crack cocaine and sold, officials allege.
Montane is charged with conspiracy in the first degree. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Hynes credited the residents of Bay Ridge in Montane’s arrest, noting that it was their quality-of-life complaints that led to the first investigation on 93rd Street.
The dominoes started falling from there, he explained.
Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride agreed.
“Stemming from calls from the public, this drug investigation led investigators from the streets of Brooklyn to Miami, Florida in order to identify and arrest the person who headed this illegal narcotics organization,” he said. “Based upon the diligent work of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and the cooperative law enforcement efforts, this cocaine trafficking network has been dismantled.”
