Mexican Drug Kingpin Flooded NYC With Fentanyl, Prosecutors Say

NEW YORK, NY – A Mexican drug kingpin accused of smuggling enough fentanyl to cause millions of overdoses in New York City has been arrested.

Francisco Quiroz-Zamora, 41, who goes by the nickname Gordy, has been linked to a supply of the deadly synthetic narcotic that has flooded into the city from Mexico over several years, prosecutors said.

He was eventually arrested after being tied to 44 pounds of fentanyl that were seized in two busts last year, one in a Bronx hotel in June and another on Central Park West in August.

In November he personally traveled to New York City to receive a payment from an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer. He was arrested as he got off a train at New York Pen Station, according to the office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.

He's accused of putting undercover officers posing as buyers in touch with his representatives in New York. In one deal, the sellers offered a kilogram of fentanyl for between $45,000 and $50,000. In June, Carlos Ramirez, 27, placed a package in an undercover officer's car before being approached by law enforcement, prosectors said.

He told officers he was staying at the Umbrella Hotel on Elton Avenue in The Bronx, where a duffel bag that contained 17 packages of fentanyl was found, prosecutors said.

After this attempted sale, Quiroz-Zamora and the undercover officer stayed in touch and arranged another deal, this time conducted by Jesus Perez-Cabral, 20, who is accused of running a drug stash at 448 Central Park West near 105th Street.

Officers watching the location saw David Rodriguez, 32, carry what appeared to be narcotics into an Uber driven by Richard Rodriguez, 43, according to the criminal complaint. Officers stopped the car at 121st Street and Amsterdam Avenue and found a kilogram of heroin, prosecutors said.

A search of the Central Park West address turned up 1,100 glassine envelopes of fentanyl stamped with the brand name "UBER," a loaded pistol and $12,000 in cash, along with ledgers, several cellphones and drug paraphernalia, prosecutors said. An additional five pounds of fentanyl was also found, prosecutors said. A fourth man, Johnny Beltrez, 33, was arrested at the scene.

"This investigation provides the American public with an inside view of a day in the life of a Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker including international travel, money pick-ups and clandestine meetings," said Drug Enforcement Agency special agent in Charge James J. Hunt.

"At the cusp of mainstream fentanyl overdoses, Quiroz-Zamora oversaw the delivery of multi-kilogram loads of fentanyl to New York, powerful enough to kill millions"

All six men were scheduled to be arraigned at Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

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