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COVER STORY: The cocaine was stashed in these boxes fi lled with the spicy fruit.
U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce
He’s a red hot
chili prisoner!
Man convicted for scheme to import drugs
hidden in peppers through Red Hook port
BY JULIANNE CUBA
He’s in hot water!
A Pennsylvania man faces no less
than 10 years behind bars after a
Brooklyn federal jury convicted him
of attempting to smuggle more than
15 kilograms of drugs into the country
inside boxes of chili peppers shipped
to the Red Hook Container Terminal.
The sentencing is a worthy punishment
for a plot that the United States attorney
for the Eastern District of New
York called dangerous — and idiotic.
“The defendant’s scheme to conceal
16 kilograms of cocaine in a shipment
of chili peppers wasn’t such a hot idea,
and with today’s verdict, he has been
held responsible for his crimes,” Richard
Donoghue said following the Feb.
14 conviction. “I commend the prosecutors
and the Drug Enforcement Administration
agents for their excellent work
in preventing illegal narcotics from being
distributed in our country.”
Keystone State resident Humberto
Baez, 50, worked as a produce importer
and in 2016 started scheming with accomplices
to bring cocaine from the
Dominican Republic into the United
States, according to prosecutors, who
said he contacted a co-conspirator
— whom Baez did not know was also
working with the Feds — to store the
drugs at the Red Hook port.
The pair set up two so-called dry
runs, during which they shipped containers
NOT FOR EATING: The Feds seized these
chili peppers, which hid the drugs.
U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce
fi lled only with chili peppers
to Kings County, to make it appear as
if the duo’s operation was a legitimate
business, prosecutors said.
But in February 2018, Baez alerted
his partner that about 16 kilograms of
cocaine hidden in a shipment of cardboard
boxes fi lled with the spicy fruit
— which he referred to in code as “ripe
tomatoes” — arrived in Florida from
the Dominican Republic.
Baez instructed his accomplice to
drive the cocaine up to his Pennsylvania
warehouse, but on March 1 of that
year, law enforcement offi cials seized
the drugs before they ever made it out
of the Sunshine State, according to the
Feds, who said offi cials arrested the
suspect later that month in Manhattan.
/eNorthfield.com