PHILADELPHIA -- Authorities said a sophisticated $9 million-a-year cocaine trafficking ring has been broken with the arrest of 14 suspects and that they were searching for 15 other suspects who eluded them in pre-dawn raids.
Among those arrested Wednesday in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Puerto Rico were alleged ringleaders Angel and Jose Hernandez.
Authorities said the Hernandez brothers operated the 'yellow tape' cocaine ring that since 1984 sold $25,000 a day worth of cocaine in street-level sales in the city's drug-infested Hunting Park section, U.S. Attorney Edward Dennis said.
When Angel Hernandez, 36, known as 'Helen,' was arrested in Chesilhurst, N.J., police found $135,000 in cash in the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz, Dennis said. He said Jose Hernandez, 33, known as 'Che,' was arrested in Salinas, Puerto Rico.
Dennis showed what looked like a corporate flow chart at a news conference, which described in detail how the alleged network employed middle-level managers, cocaine packagers, bookkeepers, street vendors and lookouts.
'This was a 24-hour operation, and therefore shifts were created for the sellers, and those shifts corresponded to the police officers' patrolling the area in plainclothes, Dennis said.
Police Commissioner Kevin Tucker said the Hernandez brothers had paid three police officers a total of $50,000 in bribes -- about $1,000 a week each -- to look the other way. The officers were part of a 100-man team that investigated the ring during the past two years, and the transactions were videotaped, he said.
Agents have seized nearly $2 million dollars worth of cocaine, properties in Philadelphia and Puerto Rico, sports cars and cash. Ten Philadelphia properties, including the Puerto Rico bar in North Philadelphia, were seized as business and sales offices of the ring, Dennis said.
Under federal 'drug kingpin' statutes, most of the suspects faced a minimum of 10 years in jail without parole and multi-million dollar fines if convicted.
The government also was seeking to seize 'a large number' of cars, boats, and properties in Philadelphia and Puerto Rico, an indictment said.
