Overview
- Law enforcement officers recovered about 266 kilograms of suspected cocaine at a Public Storage facility on Northern Boulevard in Queens, a haul officials called the NYPD’s largest narcotics seizure in at least a decade.
- Police detained 35-year-old Nelson Salcedo of Englewood, New Jersey, who has been charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and is one of three people arrested in the wider probe.
- Investigators say the months-long, interstate operation involved the NYPD, DEA, New Jersey State Police and Port Authority Police and included an Aug. 12 follow-up to a Fort Lee, New Jersey address where agents recovered cash, about 15 kilograms of cocaine and a firearm.
- Field tests on the boxed packages were positive for cocaine while formal NYPD lab analyses remain pending; officials described the drugs as appearing very pure and warned that dealers often cut cocaine with fentanyl, raising overdose risk.
- Authorities estimate the street value at more than $10 million, say the case is linked to an international cartel, and expect further forensic testing and additional arrests as they trace the distribution network.