$1-million-a-year wholesale cocaine and direct-delivery ring operating on the upper East Side has been smashed with the arrests of 19 of the 22 suspected members, prosecutors said Thursday.
A Bronx couple, Ceferino (Papo) Perez and his wife, Elsie Detres-Perez, ran the operation out of their Bronx apartment, authorities said.
"There was $300,000 in cash and pounds and pounds of gold jewelry from both (a) safety deposit box and the apartment," Assistant District Attorney Christopher Prevost told a Manhattan judge.
The couple live on Wood Road in Parkchester but Peres operated the delivery service - complete with business cards for an "electrical" firm - in East Harlem and on the upper East Side, court records show.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office said guns, drugs, packaging paraphernalia and three cars used for the deliveries were seized in the 15-month investigation.
The ring was a family affair, with Perez' brother, Kelvin Perez, helping with packaging, officials said.
In April, a wiretap caught Ceferino Perez, who called himself "Boss," telling his younger brother, "My wife needs the money so she's willing to do it. You bag up and she seals," officials said.
Prosecutors said the ring was packaging up to 500 grams of cocaine - or 1,500 individual bags - a day for sale, but that Cerefino Perez, who faces life in prison, was also buying and selling cocaine wholesale.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin entered not guilty pleas for the defendants as they were brought before him on various drug charges.
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