NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- More than 580 pounds of cocaine were seized outside a self-storage facility in Long Island City this week, the NYPD said Friday, calling it the department's largest cocaine bust in at least a decade.
The cocaine had a street value of more than $10 million, according to police, who said the bust stemmed from months of investigation with the DEA into a major trafficking network in New York and New Jersey linked back to a cartel.
The investigation took a major turn on Wednesday, when investigators followed a silver Nissan van from West 38th Street in Midtown to a storage facility at Northern Boulevard and 36th Avenue in Queens, police said.
According to police, the van's driver went in and out of the storage facility and loaded boxes into the van. When investigators stopped him, there were allegedly 19 boxes in and outside the van. A search warrant ultimately revealed about 230 brick-shaped packages of cocaine within those boxes, police said.
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Three people have been arrested, including the van's alleged driver, Nelson Salcedo, 35, of Englewood, New Jersey, who was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.
The cocaine was allegedly destined for distribution in Manhattan and New Jersey.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the bust "historic" and “the NYPD’s largest cocaine seizure in at least a decade.”
“This was a massive shipment of narcotics tied to a interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey,” Tisch said.
