An MTA bus driver was busted in connection with a cocaine trafficking operation that disguised drugs in children’s gift boxes, authorities said.
“Brazen conduct, flashy cars and a soft spot for Minnie Mouse were the trademarks of the cocaine trafficking operation announced today,” said the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan.
The package that was gift-wrapped in Minnie Mouse paper.“Defendants are charged with shamelessly exchanging more than four pounds of cocaine for $74,000 in cash in a commercial area in broad daylight.”
Officials observed nail salon manager Christopher Kelly, 51, retrieve a package gift-wrapped in pink Minnie Mouse paper from the trunk of an orange Dodge Challenger on June 19.
Agents had been surveilling the nail salon at 5821 Avenue T in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.
Kelly handed the package to Robert Woolridge, 38, an MTA bus driver, who handed Kelly a Burberry shopping bag stuffed with cash. Woolridge allegedly drove off with the Minnie Mouse gift-wrapped package in his Audi, authorities said.
The Dodge Challenger is registered to Salvatore Capece, 63, the brother-in-law of disgraced Dell Maraschino Cherry boss Arthur Mondella, according to a law enforcement source.
Mondella killed himself in 2015 as authorities raided his Brooklyn factory, which was a suspected front for a marijuana operation.
During a court-authorized search of Kelly’s home, a few blocks from the nail salon, agents discovered a second Minnie Mouse gift-wrapped package, which contained 2 kilograms of cocaine. They also seized the Burberry shopping bag, which was stuffed with $74,300 in cash, authorities said.
On June 28, agents stopped Woolridge in his car in the Bronx on his way to report for his bus route.
Agents later searched his East Tremont Avenue home, where they allegedly recovered a UPS bag from a kitchen cabinet containing 2 kilograms of cocaine worth $75,000, officials said.
There were also scales and packaging material, according to the special narcotics prosecutor.
All thee defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court to charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminally using drug paraphernalia.
The indictments were a result of a joint investigation by the special narcotics prosecutor and the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force.
