Two suspects from Los Angeles are among five people expected to make initial court appearances Wednesday after being arrested for allegedly trafficking drugs and other charges that involved storing cocaine at the L.A. Jewelry Mart.
Nohely Jimenez-Ruiz, 30, of downtown Los Angeles; and Lorna Martinez, 42, a.k.a. “Cookie,” also of downtown Los Angeles, were arrested on Tuesday. Also arrested were Jamel Donald Levy, 52, of Brooklyn, New York; Bruce Adams, 50, of Bronx, New York; and Cindy Rachel Imbert, 33, of Englewood, New Jersey.
The Los Angeles defendants were to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles federal court. The other three were to appear in New York.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, they were arrested “on a 10-count federal superseding indictment alleging their participation in a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking organization that used luxury private shipping companies to ship by air more than 22 tons of cocaine and more than $100 million in drug proceeds between Los Angeles and New York.
Currently in federal custody are alleged ringleaders, David Rodriguez, 45, a.k.a. “Gotti” and “Fat Boy,” of Dumont, New Jersey, and Raymond O’Connell, 39, a.k.a. “Sal” and “White Boy,” of the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Rodriguez and O’Connell have been in federal custody since last year. Another defendant, Ronell Sweat, 47, of New York City, is serving a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty last year to a firearms charge.
Rodriguez and O’Connell are charged with one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine, four counts of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of money laundering.
Eight other members of the alleged organization are charged in a superseding indictment returned on September 3.
Rodriguez and O’Connell allegedly directed the purchase and storage of bulk quantities of cocaine in Los Angeles, for distribution on the East Coast. From an office fronting as a jewelry store in the California Jewelry Mart in downtown Los Angeles.
Locked plastic cases full of cocaine were then shipped to New York City’s Diamond District using freight forwarding companies that specialize in shipping jewelry, precious metals and fine art.
The cocaine was then redistributed by co-conspirators along the East Coast, according to federal authorities.