NYPD Busts Major Puerto Rican Drug Ring

$1.3M worth of cocaine from seized from a Puerto Rican drug ring at the Paramount Hotel
















New York - A major Puerto Rican drug ring was crushed in New York City after authorities busted 10 members and seized over a million dollars' worth of cocaine from the cartel's lieutenant, the New York Post reported Friday.

While five of the drug dealers were busted Friday, head honcho Ricardo Gonzalez-Santiago, 36, was nabbed March 25 and charged with operating as a major trafficker -- which could put him behind bars forever, law enforcement sources said.

Gonzalez-Santiago had been on the lam from the feds for two years after giving them the slip in Philadelphia in an unrelated case, according to a spokeswoman for Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.

He resurfaced in March, touching down at John F. Kennedy International Airport from San Juan, Puerto Rico, sources said. He was allegedly dispatched to oversee the distribution of a large-scale cocaine shipment.

Already under investigation via wiretap surveillance, New York City Police Department undercover officers tailed him from the airport to an apartment in the Bronx and then to the Paramount Hotel in Times Square, sources said.

Once there, he emerged with two suitcases filled with 36 kilos of cocaine bundled into 18 packages, sources said.

The drugs were discovered when cops pulled him over at West 45th Street and Sixth Avenue.

Investigators allege Gonzalez-Santiago was going to sell the drugs for $32,000 per kilo.

Potential buyers included Francisco Rivera, 30, of the Bronx, a cocaine supplier who was arrested this morning, source said.

Rivera allegedly made numerous trips to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to set up drug deals.

The investigation was launched after authorities received reports of dealers doling out Special K, Ecstasy and Oxycodone at Manhattan nightclubs.

One of the dealers, Angela Como, 21, allegedly stole the Oxycodone from the Walgreens pharmacy where she worked and sold the prescription painkillers in Webster Hall.

In total, the investigation included 18 undercover buys -- seven of which were from Como and another 11 from Daniel Gradzki, 21, sources said.