Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino today announced charges against 15 members of a major drug ring, including its alleged leader, Fernando Diaz-Rivera, who for years allegedly has been one of the biggest heroin and cocaine suppliers in Camden and North Philadelphia. The Attorney General’s Office and assisting agencies arrested most of the targets yesterday on first-degree racketeering and/or narcotics charges. Two of the targets remain fugitives.
Fernando Diaz-Rivera, 33, aka “Gordo,” who has homes in Salem City, N.J., and Salinas, Puerto Rico, is charged with leading a narcotics trafficking network, a first-degree crime that carries a sentence of 25 years without parole to life in prison. The ring allegedly distributed a combined total of 20 to 30 kilos of heroin and cocaine per month in Camden and North Philadelphia.
In recent months, Diaz-Rivera allegedly ran the ring from Puerto Rico, giving orders to other top ring members, particularly Luis Ortiz-Merced, aka “Moodo,” 33, of Philadelphia. Diaz-Rivera currently is in custody in Puerto Rico.
The ring allegedly has ties to Mexican drug suppliers. Several high-level members of the drug ring have prior convictions for weapons offenses, and it is alleged that the ring used guns and threats of violence to conduct its business. The Attorney General’s Office seized more than six kilograms of heroin and approximately nine kilograms of cocaine during the investigation, intercepting shipments from Chicago and Puerto Rico. Those drugs are worth more than $600,000 wholesale, and once cut and packaged for sale on the street, could have commanded up to $2 million or more.
“The ring we allege was led by Diaz-Rivera supplied a majority of the drug dealers and drug sets in Camden, directly fueling the violence that goes with street-level drug dealing and its perpetual turf battles,” said Attorney General Porrino. “By dismantling his network, we will starve many of those dealers of a reliable source of high-quality heroin and cocaine, making the city safer and reducing the flow of these pernicious drugs into South Jersey and North Philadelphia.”
Attorney General Porrino added: “Heroin is taking a devastating toll on individuals, families and communities across New Jersey and the United States. By taking down these top heroin suppliers in Camden and North Philadelphia, which are major distribution hubs, we’re stopping thousands of doses of heroin from reaching users across the region each week.”
“We named this investigation Operation Inferno because Diaz-Rivera for years allegedly has been one of the hottest suppliers of heroin and cocaine in Camden and North Philadelphia,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “With these arrests and charges, we have put out the fire.”
“Lives will be saved as a result of Operation Inferno,” said Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson. “The aggressive targeting of the wholesale distributors who are supplying our streets with the very drugs that are causing thousands of overdoses and hundreds of deaths in our region each year will be welcomed news to the communities and families that have been ravaged by the unconscionable actions of these dealers.”
Diaz-Rivera allegedly exercised control over the criminal enterprise using several key members, including Ortiz-Merced. He allegedly gave orders to Ortiz-Merced regarding the operation of the enterprise, and Ortiz-Merced in turn gave orders to lower-level members of the enterprise. Ortiz-Merced allegedly was responsible for the enterprise’s finances, managing its supply of drugs, dealing with the enterprise’s suppliers, and overseeing the enterprise’s street-level drug sets.
Diaz-Rivera also allegedly gave orders to several of the enterprise’s wholesale distributors, including:
Francisco Vinicio Savinon-Paulino, 38, of Bronx, N.Y., also known as “Vinicio,” Luis Medero, 34, of Camden, also known as “Chucho,”
Helmer Garcia, 27, of Camden, also known as “E,” and Javier Rosa-Romero, 30, of Salinas, Puerto Rico, and Camden, also known as “Jav.”
These wholesale distributors allegedly brokered deals for kilogram quantities of drugs to be fronted to lower-level members of the enterprise and collected proceeds from drug sales to be funneled back to Diaz-Rivera through Ortiz-Merced.
The individuals being fronted drugs sold them to drug sets in Camden and North Philadelphia on a wholesale level and ran their own drug sets in those locations.
These members of the enterprise allegedly included:
Angel Padilla, 43, of Camden, also known as “Choiry,” Alexis Burgos, 37, of Mount Holly, N.J., also known as “Papote,”Juan Carlo Moreno Borrero Jr., 19, of Salinas, Puerto Rico, and Camden, also known as “Moreno,” Angel Rosa-Ramos, 24, of Camden, also known as “Chongo,” and Angel Martinez, 38, of Camden, also known as “Pica.”
At Diaz-Rivera’s direction, Ortiz-Merced allegedly used a portion of the proceeds to reinvest in new product. The rest allegedly was given to Diaz-Rivera’s girlfriend, Karina Elice Olmeda-Burgos, 21, of Salem City, N.J. Diaz-Rivera instructed Olmeda-Burgos on what to do with the money.
In late September, Medero and another associate, Aleisha Marin-Vializ, 27, of Camden, allegedly drove from Camden to Chicago to pick up 10 kilograms of drugs on behalf of the enterprise. They arrived back in Camden in the early morning hours of Oct. 2. The rental car they were driving was stopped by detectives of the Division of Criminal Justice, and approximately five kilograms of cocaine and five kilograms of heroin were found under the rear seat of the vehicle.
Padilla allegedly had an alternative supplier, Jonathan Contreras, 28, of Camden who allegedly arranged to send drugs through the mail from a supplier in Puerto Rico to himself and another associate, Marcos Mendoza, 19, of Camden, at an address in Camden. Two packages were intercepted by the Division of Criminal Justice and the U.S. Postal Service, and four kilos of cocaine were seized.
The following defendants remain fugitives:
Angel Rosa-Ramos
Karina Elice Olmeda-Burgos
Ten defendants were arrested yesterday, and three were previously in custody. Diaz-Rivera and Rosa-Romero were already being held in a federal detention center in Puerto Rico on weapons charges. Ortiz-Merced was being held in Pennsylvania on a prior drug charge.
Savinon-Paulino was arrested yesterday and is being held in New York City. The other defendants were arrested in New Jersey and are being held in the Camden County Jail with bails ranging from $250,000 to $400,000.
All of the defendants, with the exception of Contreras and Mendoza, are charged with first-degree racketeering. Contreras, Mendoza, Diaz-Rivera, Ortiz-Merced, Medero and Marin-Vializ are charged first-degree possession of narcotics with intent to distribute, and Padilla is charged with first-degree distribution of narcotics. All of the defendants also are charged with second-degree conspiracy.
The first-degree charge filed against Diaz-Rivera of leading a narcotics trafficking network carries a sentence of up to life in state prison, with a mandatory minimum term of 25 years without possibility of parole and a fine of up to $750,000. The other first-degree charges carry a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison. The racketeering charge carries a period of parole ineligibility equal to 85 percent of the sentence imposed. The racketeering charge carries a fine of up to $200,000, while the first-degree narcotics possession and distribution charges carry a fine of up to $500,000. The second-degree conspiracy charges carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000.