Authorities Reveal Names, Details of Long Island Cocaine Ring

Nineteen people, including 18 from Suffolk County, have been arrested and stand accused of being part of a Long Island cocaine ring.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Deputy Special Agent in Charge Anthony Scandiffio revealed the names of those arrested and the details on how the ring operated during a press conference Wednesday morning.

Officials said the investigation began in June of last year when 20 kilos of cocaine bound for the Amityville residence of Juan Funes, 39, were seized in California by HSI agents working as part of a special task force in Los Angeles.

“Up until that time, Funes would take his California shipments and resell the cocaine to other drug dealers in Suffolk County,” Spota said. ”The California enforcement effort was a major disruption to the cocaine supply line to Long Island.”

Investigators learned that Funes had cross-country drivers delivering cocaine from southern California to Suffolk County in cars and SUVs outfitted with “traps” to hide the narcotics, Spota said.

“It is believed the drugs were imported from Mexico to California and then transported here by couriers, one of them identified as Brizaura Rodriguez, 34, of Bellerose, Queens, who is charged with conspiracy for her role as a courier,” he said.

The Suffolk investigation by HSI and the DA’s Squad culminated in the execution of 16 search warrants and the subsequent indictments of the 19 people, including six men charged with operating as a major trafficker, a class A felony.

The Amityville Village Police Department played a critical role in the investigation by surveilling suspects and providing intelligence via local sources, as well as other investigative work, Spota said.

Funes, Rafael Rodriguez, of West Babylon, and four Copiague men–Elvis Caba, Victor Nunez, Juan Santana and Angel Velez-Funes–are charged as the major traffickers.

A dozen others (listed below) are charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and various other narcotics possession crimes. Spota said approximately 150 HSI agents and 40 DA’s Squad detectives executed the warrants and seized 19 handguns; some of them loaded, some of them with defaced serial numbers, along with six assault rifles, and over $400,000 in cash.

“These arrests dismantle an insidious drug trafficking organization that allegedly operated throughout Long Island for years, pushing its poison to countless users and ruining lives in the process,” Scandiffio said.

Spota said that during the joint investigation, 16 court-authorized telephone taps were employed.

Many of those arrested “lived two lives” by blending into the community by holding legitimate jobs, “a fact that is usually not the case when law enforcement encounters suspected cocaine dealers,” Spota said. “Like Funes, who ran a cleaning service with 30 employees, many members of the drug ring worked.”

Nunez is a taxi driver, Rafael and Kevin Rodriguez co–own a gutter business, Jesus Simi operates a delicatessen and Juan Rosario worked at two eye centers as an optical lens maker, officials said. 

The 19 people arrested:

• Juan Santana, 30, of Copiague- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Juan Funes, 39, of Amityville- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Angel Velez-Funes, 26, of Copiague- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Victor Nunez, 40, of Copiague- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Rafael Rodriguez, 34, of W. Babylon- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Elvis Caba, 39, of Copiague- charged with one count of operating as a major trafficker and one count of second degree conspiracy
• Edilio Almonte, 38, of Babylon- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Cory Cognat, 39, of Bayport- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Juan Espinal, 33, of Lindenhurst- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Charles Henderson, 60, of Bay Shore- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Edgar Rivera-Galdamez, 32, of Copiague- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Brizaura Rodriguez, 34, of Bellrose, Queens- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Jose Ariel Rodriguez, 43, of Lindenhurst- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Kevin Rodriguez, 34, of W. Babylon- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Juan Rosario, 46, of Lindenhurst- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Michael Rosati, 45, of Copiague- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy and and one count of first degree criminal possession of a controlled substance
• Michael Russo, 50, of W. Babylon- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Jesus Sime, 47, of Lindenhurst- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy
• Scott Wilson, 44, of Huntington- charged with one count of second degree conspiracy and one count of second degree criminal possession of a controlled substance