Over 100 pounds of suspected cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, and oxycodone, carrying an estimated street value of $4 million, was seized by law enforcement from a Bronx pizzeria last week, officials said. The seizure, part of an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in New York City, was carried out by federal, State and local law enforcement officers at Mexzzarella Pizza in the Soundview/Clason Point section of The Bronx, officials said.

 

Frank A. Tarentino III, special agent in charge of the New York division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA), Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP),  NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban, New York State Police Acting Superintendent Dominick L. Chiumento (NYSP), Rockland County District Attorney Thomas E. Walsh III, and Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced the arrest of Gaudencio Rosendo Perez, 47, of Manhattan, Zulema Cardenas Espinoza, 53, of Manhattan, and Alexander Samboy, 45, of Berlin, CT,  following an investigation by DEA Group D-43, along with the New York City Office of the SNP, NYPD, NYSP, and Rockland County District Attorney’s Office.

 

In the context of the announcement, Tarentino III said, “This drug trafficking organization was cooking up more than pizza in The Bronx. The large stash of cocaine found in the basement of Mexzzarella Pizza is very significant because it had the potential to supply drug networks throughout the Northeast.”

 

He continued, “Cocaine is being laced with fentanyl, which is contributing to poisonings and unnecessary deaths in New York and across the country. As evident in this investigation, DEA and our law enforcement partners are continuously working together to identify and arrest drug traffickers responsible for inflicting the most harm on our communities.”

 

Federal, State and local officials said the investigation was also assisted by the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department. A criminal complaint filed by the Office of the SNP charges Perez with operating as a major trafficker and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, and Espinoza, and Samboy with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees.

 

Perez, Espinoza, and Samboy were arrested on Thursday, Oct. 18, and were arraigned on Friday, Oct. 20, in Manhattan Criminal Court, where Perez was remanded, and Espinoza and Samboy’s bail was set at $150,000 cash/bond with a 72-hour surety and passports surrendered.

 

Clark thanked “local and federal partners” for not only intercepting what she said was a huge amount of potentially deadly drugs before they reached people on the streets, but for revealing what she described as a perilous situation of fentanyl and heroin being stored and mixed near food in a pizza parlor. “It is yet another example of drug traffickers’ utmost disregard for the health and safety of our community in order in order to feed their greed,” the district attorney said.

 

According to the prosecution team, on Thursday, Oct. 19, agents and officers from DEA, NYPD, NYSP, the New York City Office of the SNP and Rockland County District Attorney’s Office conducted surveillance on Soundview Avenue in The Bronx. They said that at around 10.15 a.m., Perez and Espinoza were observed driving a blue Hyundai sedan and parked in front of 553 Soundview Avenue, the location of Mexzzarella Pizza, and said agents and officers observed the two unlock and open the doors to business, located directly across from elementary public school, P.S. 69.

 

They said Espinoza was observed removing a shopping bag that appeared weighted from the rear of the blue sedan and bringing the bag into the pizzeria. They said that at around 12.07 p.m., surveillance teams observed Samboy walking along Soundview Avenue, carrying a black and blue North Face backpack and then enter Mexzzarella Pizza. They said the backpack appeared empty and very light based on the shape of the bag and the way Samboy carried it.

 

The prosecution team said that at around 12.20 p.m., surveillance units observed Samboy exit the location carrying the same type and color backpack but this time, it appeared to be heavily weighted. They said Samboy walked to a silver Subaru Impreza with Connecticut license plates and placed the backpack inside the rear passenger seat.

 

They said mobile surveillance units followed Samboy and at 12.25 p.m. a vehicle stop was conducted on Samboy in front of 788 Metcalf Avenue. They said that with assistance from the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department’s K-9 Unit, agents and officers recovered five kilograms of suspected cocaine from the vehicle. They said the kilograms were wrapped in black tape with blue and white label that read “R2.”

 

They said that surveillance units that remained at Mexzzarella Pizza observed Perez exit the pizzeria at 3.15 p.m., look up and down the block and use his phone to film vehicles and license plates on Soundview Avenue. They said at this time, agents and task force officers approached Perez and Espinoza, identified themselves and detained them.

 

The prosecution team said that at approximately 5.45 p.m. agents and task force officers conducted a search of Mexzzarella Pizza, where 42 kilograms of suspected cocaine, one kilogram of heroin/fentanyl, 1,000 glassine envelopes containing suspected oxycodone and fentanyl, large rocks of cocaine, a kilo press, and approximately $40,000 were recovered from the basement. They said agents and officers also recovered 100 vials of suspected crack cocaine and a yellow powdery substance on the ground floor. They said the vials were stored near the pizza counter apparently for convenient sales or to provide samples to customers.

 

Brennan said in part, “This highly profitable Bronx-based narcotics operation appeared to operate as a wholesaler and distributor of cocaine and fentanyl laced products, and was advertised as an ‘inexpensive Mexican pizza spot’. Our office will continue to work with our federal, state and local enforcement partners to stem the distribution of lethal drugs that claimed the lives of a record high number of people in our city last year.”

Her comments were echoed by Caban who said, “This successful narcotics investigation resulted in the shutting down of a major drug trafficking organization in the Bronx, and is indicative of how the NYPD and our law enforcement partners work tirelessly to identify and arrest anyone who endangers our communities in this way. We will keep using our collective resources to aggressively pursue these criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”

 

Law enforcement officials said results of DEA laboratory analysis on the narcotics seized are pending.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), an estimated 111,797 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and poisonings in 2022, with almost 70 percent of those deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Meanwhile, 3,026 people fatally overdosed in New York City alone in 2022, according to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Health officials say only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose.

 

The CDC highlights a continued increase in co-involvement of opioids in drug overdose deaths involving cocaine over time. Results showed that in 2021, 78.6 percent of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine also involved an opioid. The percentage of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine that also involved an opioid varied by region, with 73.4 percent in the western part of the country, 75.1 percent in the south, 79.6 percent in the mid-west, and 84.5 percent in the northeast.

 

The DEA commended what they said was diligent work by the New York City SNP Office, the NYPD, the NYSP, Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, and the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department.

 

Chiumento said in part, “Because of our steadfast commitment and our continued collaboration, we have dismantled yet another major drug trafficking operation and prevented illegal narcotics from making it into our communities. I praise the hard work of the agents involved with the case. We will not stop and will continue to work closely with all our law enforcement partners to aggressively target those who bring dangerous drugs, and the violence that comes along with those drugs, into our neighborhoods.”

 

The defendants are deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.