10 Members Of Bronx Drug Trafficking Organization Charged With Distributing- Worth Over $22 Million

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https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/10-members-bronx-drug-trafficking-organization-charged-distributing-thousands-pounds

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 19, 2017

10 Members Of Bronx Drug Trafficking Organization Charged With Distributing Thousands Of Pounds Of Marijuana Worth Over $22 Million

Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James J. Hunt, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), James D. Robnett, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), Angel M. Melendez, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and James P. O’Neill, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging HALLIL TABAR, ASMIN HERNANDEZ, JOHN MUNOZ-GARCIA, JAIRO CIENFUEGOS, WILLIAM BAEZ, HENRY RODRIGUEZ, DANNY HANNAH, JR., KEVIN UMEJEI, and STARLY HERNANDEZ with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and a Complaint charging LORNE VICTORIA with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and use of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. Nine of the defendants were arrested yesterday and presented before United States Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan federal court, and STARLY HERNANDEZ was arrested this morning and will be presented before Judge Netburn later today.
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The defendants are members of a Bronx-based large-scale drug trafficking organization (the “DTO”) that shipped hundreds of boxes containing thousands of pounds of marijuana from California to various locations in New York. Between at least March 2016 and the present, the DTO trafficked in over 6,600 pounds of marijuana worth approximately $22 million, which was sent to residences and businesses in Manhattan, the Bronx, and New Rochelle. After the drugs were shipped to New York, the defendants transferred multiple boxes of marijuana per week to several stash houses from which the DTO members further distributed the drugs to customers and dealers.

In connection with yesterday’s arrests, law enforcement agents executed search warrants at 12 locations in the Bronx, including apartments occupied by several of the defendants. During the execution of those search warrants, agents recovered, among other items, three handguns, one sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, multiple kilograms of cocaine, hundreds of pounds of marijuana, and thousands of dollars in cash. DEA agents previously seized over $230,000 in cash from TABAR on October 14, 2017, at San Francisco International Airport.
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