Brooklyn cocaine ring jacked up prices during pandemic: prosecutors – By John Annese (New York Daily News) / Sept 14 20 0
A band of greedy drug traffickers took advantage of a cocaine shortage during the coronavirus pandemic to mark up their product to a desperate Brooklyn clientele, prosecutors said Monday.
Police and prosecutors announced they’d busted the ring’s kingpin and nine other loosely connected suspects, recovering two guns, roughly a kilo of coke and nearly $200,000 in cash
Alleged kingpin Miguel Rivera, 42, and his partner, Alberto Bota, paid up to $50,000 per kilo — about 30% to 50% higher than pre-pandemic prices — then jacked up the price another 3% to 5%, prosecutors said. On occasion, they’d sell the drugs the same day they bought it, prosecutors said.
Authorities said they found cocaine and stacks of cash during raids of a Brooklyn drug trafficking ring.
“For them, the crisis provided an opportunity to charge some of the highest prices for cocaine seen in New York City in recent years,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said.
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