Tons of cocaine, $100M cash shipped from LA to NYC via luxury flights, feds allege

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – Five people were arrested Tuesday in connection with a sprawling cross-country drug trafficking organization that funneled some 22 tons of cocaine and over $100 million in cash between Los Angeles and New York, officials with the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Prosecutors said in a news release that the organizations’ alleged ringleaders, 45-year-old David Rodriguez, aka “Gotti” and “Fat Boy,” of Dumont, New Jersey, and 39-year-old Raymond O’Connell, aka “Sal” and “White Boy,” of Manhattan, have been in custody since 2024.  

The two men are accused of purchasing and shipping bulk quantities of cocaine stored at an office fronting as a jewelry store in the California Jewelry Mart in downtown L.A. 

Cocaine was reportedly shipped in locked plastic cases concealed in New York City’s Diamond District using what the DOJ described as “high-value freight forwarding companies” that specialize in shipping jewelry, precious metals and fine art.  

Once Rodriguez and O’Connell redistributed the drugs to co-conspirators on the East Coast, prosecutors allege, they directed the cash proceeds to L.A., where others in the organization laundered the cash.  

Investigators said that more than 800 parcels of coke were shipped from L.A. to New York, an estimated 22 tons of the drug, with an estimated street value of $315 million. More than 500 parcels were shipped from New York to L.A. with an estimated street value of $105 million.  

“During the investigation, law enforcement seized more than $2.8 million in cash drug proceeds and more than 725 kilograms (nearly 1,600 pounds) of cocaine, as well as high-end cars and jewelry that defendants purchased using drug proceeds,” the release noted.  

Another defendant in the case, 47-year-old New York City resident Ronnell Sweat, pleaded guilty to federal firearm charges in 2024 and is currently serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison, according to the DOJ.  

Five additional arrests made Tuesday in connection with the drug trafficking organization included:  

• 52-year-old Brooklyn resident Jamel Donald Levy
• 50-year-old Bronx resident Bruce Adams
• 33-year-old Englewood, New Jersey, resident Cindy Rachel Imbert
• 30-year-old downtown L.A. resident Nohely Jimenez
• 42-year-old downtown L.A. resident Lorna “Cookie” Martinez

All three defendants from the East Coast made their initial court appearances on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, while both L.A. defendants are due to appear in Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday.  

Authorities have yet to announce exactly what charges the five defendants arrested on Tuesday are facing.  

Rodriquez and O’Connell were charged by federal prosecutors with the following counts: 

• Engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise
• Conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine
• Four counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine
• Conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and money laundering

“If convicted, Rodriguez and O’Connell would face mandatory sentences of life in federal prison. The cocaine distribution charges carry a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment,” the release detailed. “The money laundering-related counts are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.” 

Investigators are still trying to locate two other defendants charged in the superseding indictment: 52-year-old Daniel “Nice” Vega and 40-year-old Gregory “G” Antonio Benitez, both residents of New York City.