A multi-agency narcotics strike force tapped the cell phone conversations of Spanish Harlem boxer Edgar Santana as part of its year-long investigation into an alleged cocaine conspiracy, which prosecutors say used the U.S. Postal Service to ship multiple kilograms of the drug from Puerto Rico for distribution in New York City.

An indictment unsealed yesterday by the New York Special Narcotics Court contains references to numerous “coded and cryptic” phone conversations. Santana appears to have been recorded in mid-November brokering a deal between two acquaintances for a kilogram of cocaine.

Santana, a junior welterweight with a 24-3 record, remained in police custody after his arraignment yesterday. The 29-year-old’s next bout, scheduled for an August 6 broadcast on ESPN, is in jeopardy but has not yet been canceled.

A large contingent of the boxer’s friends and family were in the courtroom as Santana entered his not guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and sale of a controlled substance. Twelve others were named in the indictment.

Following the arraignment Santana’s family huddled in the marble hallway to discuss meeting the bail levied on the fighter – a $150,000 bond and $75,000 in cash. Santana’s lawyer, Dan Ollen, said collecting such amounts would cause hardship for the family.

“Mr. Santana couldn’t hide from the law even if he wanted to.” Ollen told the court. “He is a world-famous boxer. He’ll be the main event on a fight card on ESPN. He’s very active in the community in Spanish Harlem.”

Santana is accused of brokering a deal in November 2007 between Angel Colon, the alleged ringleader of the conspiracy, and Tommy Caraballo, whose lawyer Frank Ortiz said was one of Santana’s childhood friends.

According to the indictment, tape of a Nov. 12 phone call reveals Caraballo agreeing to purchase one kilogram of cocaine from Colon. The indictment states that Caraballo picked the drugs up the next day near Second Ave. and East 101st St., having agreed in exchange to pay an undisclosed sum to Colon by passing the money to Colon through Santana.

But as Caraballo came away with the kilo of cocaine in Nov. 13, he was intercepted by the New York Drug Enforcement Strike Force – an investigation unit that combines resources of the DEA, FBI, NYPD, New York State Police and other agencies.

Caraballo was arrested and the cocaine was recovered from his vehicle, the indictment said. Caraballo was indicted in November, but was reindicted yesterday along with other alleged conspirators.

In another recorded conversation on Nov. 14, Colon allegedly asked Santana if the fighter had heard anything from Caraballo since the previous day’s transaction. Colon then asked Santana to pay Colon for he cocaine. It is not clear of the two realized at that point that Caraballo had been arrested.

On Nov. 15, according to the indictment, Santana told Colon in yet another “coded and cryptic” conversation that Santana would indeed pay Colon, which Santana allegedly did at 8:12 that evening.

The Daily News was the first to report Friday on the arrests of Santana, Colon and other alleged coconspirators. A DEA source told The News that $450,000 and at least a kilogram of cocaine were recovered.

Colon’s lawyer, Matt Myers, said no drugs or significant cash were found at his client’s home Friday, but that several cell phones were confiscated.

Colon’s bail was set at a $2 million bond and $1 million in cash. There will be a surety hearing in the next three days to make sure that the bail money doesn’t come from ill-gotten gains.

Source: New York Daily News

Attorney for the defense of Mr. Colon: Matthew D. Myers

Pro Boxer Edgar Santana Busted As Part Of Alleged Major Cocaine Ring

By Teri Thompson, Michael O’Keeffe And Nathaniel Vinton
Daily News Sports Writers

Updated Friday, July 18th 2008, 4:58 PM
(Originally published on July 18 at 10:12 a.m.)

Edgar Santana, the junior welterweight boxer often billed as “The Pride of Spanish Harlem,” was arrested Friday as part of an alleged international cocaine distribution ring busted by the New York Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor and the New York Office of the DEA.

Santana, 29, was picked up at his home at the George Washington Carver Houses on 102nd St. in Spanish Harlem in the early morning hours Friday. Friends and acquaintances were stunned.

“Everybody has been blindsided by this whole thing because it’s just not something that you would think Edgar could be involved in,” said Ernesto Dallas, Santana’s manager for the last six years.

Santana and seven other alleged co-conspirators were led out of a DEA office building in lower Manhattan Friday just after noon and taken to New York State Supreme Court. They are expected to be arraigned on Monday on second-degree criminal conspiracy and first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

His arms handcuffed behind him, a grim Santana, who is scheduled to fight in an ESPN-televised match on Aug. 6, said nothing as DEA agents led him to a waiting car. On his black T-shirt was the following slogan in yellow letters: “The pressure of survival in the big city will make you lose sight of your dream…hang in there – de la Vega.”

James de la Vega, the Spanish Harlem artist who designed the T-shirt, was shocked by the news. “He’s a huge symbol of pride in Spanish Harlem,” de la Vega told the Daily News. “I’ve walked down the streets with him in the neighborhood and people love him everywhere. … He’s a friend of mine. We have a lot of love and respect for him here.”

The investigation, known as “Operation Special Delivery,” was the result of a cooperative effort by the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, in conjunction with the DEA and the the New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force, which is composed of agents from the NYPD, the IRS, the Homeland Security and the FBI, among other agencies.

Agents arrested 12 individuals and recovered $450,000 and at least a kilogram of cocaine in the one-year investigation into a plot to mail cocaine from Santana’s native Puerto Rico to addresses in Manhattan and the Bronx, according to the DEA.

Santana, according to investigators, brokered a deal on behalf of ringleader Angel Colon, and is accused of selling a kilogram of cocaine. Because the case originated with the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office, it will be prosecuted in New York state court.

“This organization abused the U.S. Postal Service and used packages to smuggle illicit goods into our country,” said New York DEA special agent in charge, John P. Gilbride. “This shows the lengths drug distribution organizations will go to achieve their goal, but they will not be successful, and will face the consequences of their actions as today’s arrests demonstrate.”

A headline attraction in promoter Lou DiBella’s Broadway Boxing Series, Santana was out of boxing briefly, working as a barber in Spanish Harlem, before making a comeback.

Santana, whose record is 24-3 with 15 knockouts, last fought in April, when he won a 10-round decision over Josesito Lopez in Miami on April 11.

Contacted by the Daily News Friday, DiBella was shocked that Santana had been arrested.

“This is completely out of character for him. He was close to everybody in our office,” the promoter said. “My staff is sick about this. He was just talking about opening a barbershop. I’m hoping this is a mistake. But obviously if he’s done something against the law, he’s going to have to pay,” DiBella said.

Santana began his career in a gym in Spanish Harlem and then moved to the reknowned Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, where he worked with Hector Rocca, who helped train Hilary Swank in Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning drama “Million Dollar Baby.”

Dallas, Santana’s current trainer, was with Santana the night before the arrest and said there was nothing in the young boxer’s demeanor to suggest trouble on the horizon.

“In our conversations there were only two things on his mind lately and that was continuing to move up in boxing and getting his barbershop started,” Dallas said. “We were looking at the lease for a place for the barbershop and working out the final plans for the place. He was getting that off the ground. I was with him until 8:30 last night and there was nothing in his demeanor that would indicate anything like this was happening.”

In a 2005 interview for the boxing Web site Doghouse Boxing, Santana talked about what a blessing it was to find boxing as a youngster growing up in dangerous circumstances.

“When I started boxing, I went with seven of my friends to Mickey Rosario’s gym in Spanish Harlem,” Santana recalled. “I remember he told us, out of all seven of us, only one or two of us were going to make it. He said the rest would go into a life of drugs or end up getting killed.

“Looking back, I’m the only one left. Everyone else is either in jail or is getting killed.”

Source: New York Daily News

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

Two Arrested In Drugs And Guns Scheme

By Christopher Flaherty
Special to The Sun – March 22, 2007

City Law Enforcement Officials arrested two men charged with running a criminal network that used drug profits to purchase and sell guns on the streets on New York.

In the scheme, three suspects, Peguy Desir, 27, Joshua Pierre, 30, and a man yet to be apprehended who is knows as “Big Man” purchased drugs in the city and sold them for large profits in the South, the officials said. They would then purchase guns in Southern states and resell them for higher prices in New York, the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morganthau, said at a press conference yesterday.

Some of the guns were bought at pawnshops in Virginia, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said.

Mr. Morgenthau said the suspects were arrested on Tuesday evening at 182 South St. after a sting operation conducted by a joint task force from the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the police department’s Firearm Investigation Unit.

During the investigation, which commenced in January 2006, officials confiscated 83 guns and large quantities of crack, heroin, and marijuana, Mr. Morgenthau said.

Using cell phones, the suspects would send the undercover officials digital pictures of the weapons. Many of the investigators said that it was the first time they had seen illegal gun vendors use digital photography.

“It was part of merchandising the weapons — a new high-tech phase of weapon sales,” the chief assistant district attorney for Manhattan, James Kindler, said.

The suspects sold the guns to the undercover operatives for about $840 each, the chief of the police department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau, Anthony Izzo, said. Illegal gun vendors resell out-of-state guns in the city for about two times the purchase price, Mr. Kelly said.

Elected officials in many of the Southern states find it difficult to restrict gun sales, Mr. Kelly said, because of pressure from the National Rifle Association.

It is believed that the guns confiscated by undercover officers represent only a fraction of the weapons sold by the suspects on the city’s streets, he said.

Source: The New York Sun – March 22,2007

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

Lift Foxy’s Ear-Bling In Catfight

BY TONY SCLAFANI

Tuesday, September 14th 2004, 6:48AM

A $250,000 DIAMOND-encrusted earring was snatched from the lovely ear of rapper Foxy Brown when she was attacked inside a rest room at a swanky Manhattan club, cops said.

The raunchy R&B star was knocked around at Show Nightclub in Times Square early Sunday after an argument with a woman cops identified as Tanya Manderson got physical, police sources told the Daily News.

She slugged the 25-year-old Brooklyn-bred diva in the right ear about 12:45 a.m., then yanked off the gaudy earring, the sources said.

Manderson allegedly took the earring and Brown’s purse and ran out of the W. 41st St. club with security guards close behind, the sources said.

She disappeared into a subway station at 42nd St. and Sixth Ave. before hurling the purse onto the tracks and giving the guards the slip. The purse was recovered, but not the earring.

Someone at the club knew Manderson, and cops hauled her into the Midtown South Precinct about 4:30 p.m.

Manderson, 35, of Fort Greene, was charged with robbery, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

MSG Result: Tanya Manderson’s case dismissed by the grand jury.

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers