Federal Officers Raid Cocaine-Delivering Pizzeria in NYC
John's Pizzeria in The Bronx seemed to be surviving the economic downturn nicely, with a steady stream of customers for its popular pizzas and calzones. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) noticed just how well the neighborhood pizza joint was doing and suspected that manager Benigno Burgos had made some "additions" to the conventional pizza menu – additions that had some customers traveling from as far away as Connecticut for a take-out pizza.
Photo by cygnus921
This week, DEA officers raided the small pizza shop along with four houses they say served as safe houses for the storage of cocaine, cash, and drugs. This pizzeria, say DEA officials, did a booming business by delivering wholesale quantities of cocaine, hidden in pizza boxes, to customers across the city – pizza boxes that would contain as much as $40,000 worth of drugs at a time.
Officials found 9 kgs of cocaine, four handguns, and $20,000 in cash during the raid, even finding kilos of cocaine hidden under a child's mattress at Burgos' house.
The raid culminated in a 10-month DEA investigation into the drug ring and the arrest of store manager Burgos, his alleged partner Victor Gomez, and four delivery drivers, who DEA officers say packaged and drove the drugs to customers around the city, with the cocaine always hidden inside pizza bags and boxes.
DEA Special Agent in Charge John Gilbride summed up the operation's activities by saying, "Using their pizza shop as a front for drug trafficking, the dough that this organization made was not from the sale of pizza but rather illegal narcotics. … This organization's brick ovens have been shut down."
Benigno Burgos, Victor Gomez, and the "delivery staff" will face arraignment in New York City Criminal Court.
