14 Philadelphians Arrested in International FBI Heroin Bust

Federal investigators have arrested 37 people, including 14 from Philadelphia and three from New Jersey, for allegedly participating in a massive, multi-state heroin trafficking organization, according to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The indictment files 108 charges against defendants in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Chicago, Texas and Mexico. The counts include conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit money laundering, 62 counts of money laundering, and 43 substantive drug charges.

Court documents say the defendants all played a role in the Laredo Drug Trafficking Organization, beginning with brothers Antonio and Ismael Laredo. They allegedly supervised the import of more than 1,000 kilograms of heroin from Mexico into the United States, using various concealment techniques including car batteries, car bumpers, concealed vehicle traps, and sealed fruit and vegetable cans.

Antonio and Ismael Laredo allegedly recruited and hired couriers in the United States to transport and deliver shipments heroin distributors in Philadelphia, Camden, N.J., Chicago, Atlanta, and New York. Defendant Antonio Marcelo Barragan allegedly served as a Mexican-based supplier of raw opium.

The Department of justice also says that the Laredo network supplied street level heroin bagging and packaging operations in Philadelphia.

Smaller quantities of heroin, 15 to 50 kilograms at a time, were regularly moved between the Chicago operation and the Philadelphia operation, the indictment says, and violence was used to protect the product and proceeds and to prevent members from withdrawing from the organization.

The indictment further alleges that the Laredo brothers had numerous relatives and associates set up “funnel accounts” that were used for the purpose of laundering the proceeds of the drug operation back to Mexico.

According to the indictment, using a variety of money laundering techniques, including the use of the funnel accounts, wire transfers of funds, and Western Union money grams, the network laundered at least $5 million of its heroin proceeds back to Mexico, where the Laredo brothers resided.

If convicted, the Laredo brothers each face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, as well as a criminal forfeiture judgment to the United States of up to $60 million; most of the remaining drug trafficking defendants face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison .

The charged Philadelphia defendants are: Francisco “Franci” Gonzalez Jose, 43; Darbin “Darbi” Vargas, 31; Gabriel Vargas, 26; Edwin Vidal, 27; Luis “Chupee” Vasquez, 41; Frank “Cojo” Christian Peralta, 24; Ariel “El Puro” Rodriguez, 21; Joel Peralta-Reyes, 24; Jhonny Mena-Mariano, 38; Samuel Perez, 46; Melvin Pagan, 36; Robert Delorbe, 46; Johana Lasals, 37; and Jose Luis Rojas-Hernandez, 37.

Also charged were Confesor Montalvo, 43, of Cherry Hill; Miguel “Chisito” Irizarry, 32, of Camden; and Jose “Drama” Ruiz, 42, of Camden.