Dude, Huge Cocaine Bust in Williamsburg Right Before the Weekend!

Narcotics investigators seized more than $800,000 and 61 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $1 million in a Williamsburg apartment yesterday. The drugs were hidden under the seat of a portable sauna, and officials say—wait, portable sauna?! Is that really a thing? Turns out yes, it is! It's also one of the last places anyone would want to "chill" while ripping rails, so the suspects probably figured nobody would ever think to look in there for cocaine. Oh well.

The big stash was found in an apartment above defunct Laila Lounge on North Seventh Street. Building super Johanny Olmedo, 51, and his girlfriend, Christine Ladeveze, 48, reside there, the Daily News reports. Investigators tell Brooklyn Paper that on Wednesday, state troopers allegedly spotted another man, Ronald Lugo, exiting the apartment carrying two boxes to his car. He was pulled over on the Bronx side of Triboro Bridge, and 10 kilos of cocaine were found in the boxes. Investigators then obtained a search warrant to search the apartment yesterday. The three face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and ugh everyone's going to be so boring this weekend.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on November 20, 2009 2:13 PM

Comments [rss]

Liquidmind

What a great picture for the article!

JimmyPac

Yeeeeeahhhhhh!

Double07

61 pounds of cocaine? Damn... My question is what are they going to do with all that cocaine!?

To the comment above as to whether or not you can get 61 lbs of coke for a million, most likely. That seems like a pretty large estimate considering it would come to $36 a gram. At that quantity it shouldn't be more then $10-15/g but street value... $40-80/g, if it's decent stuff.

I'd value it at a quarter million ($250,000), cops like to overstate when they make a bust.

sharpshoota

Why didn't he jump off the bridge. That works sometimes.

Neverhaditsogood

If you look boring out on the street today, the cops will have a reason to frisk and toss your boring butt.

Edubs

I think people should just do shrooms. Now that's a good time time time time emit emit emit emit.

felixthecatSUX

No fucking way. Imagine if all the hipsters in the burg replaced their coke with shrooms for a big holiday weekend?? It would be madness, they would be eating each others faces and jumping off buildings and wandering in front of speeding cars, oh wait, maybe that is a GREAT IDEA

PTG in nyc

NannyState cracks me up.

wdunleavy needs to chill. Why comment if you hate it here so much?

emilydickinson

What does 61 pounds of yayo look like?

just saying

Well, right now it looks like this: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200812/r319272_1419869.jpg

NannyState

Heaven.

NannyState

I promise I'll remember to wear a towel next time I do hot rails.

jaja007

duh: dry-heat sauna is ideal for storing coke. you gatta keep the moisture outta that stuff. get with it gothamist, sheesh.

just saying

You seem to know more than the average person about the best way to store coke. I wonder why.

hotstepper

shoulda boofed it.

Guest

Moral of the story: Don't let state troopers see you carry boxes to your car.

NannyState

Especially if they say "Dunkin Donuts".

grizzzly

Sorry for feeding the trolls, but y'all need to stop complaining about Gothamist being a tabloid/hipster rag/den of poor journalism. This site is clearly a lite news/culture/local info page written in a particular and individual voice, and not an attempt at comprehensive, hard-hitting journalism. Go elsewhere if you want news, come here if you want to post ad-nauseum about wacky bike-lane hijinks.

JenChungsBaby

I'm not a big skier, but can you really get 61 pounds of coke for just $1 million?

tingo

The last time this happened was in June, 1987 and it cause a paradigm shift.

Suddenly, everyone in Williamsburg will look at their headbands and multicolored pants and realize how ridiculous they look.

jaycjay

"The last time this happened was in June, 1987 and it cause a paradigm shift."

Well, no, the last time it happened in Williamsburg/Greenpoint was about a year ago. And it made no difference at all:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/10/10/2008-10-10_heres_kielbasa_thats_snortin_good.html

This won't make a big change in the availability of the drug this weekend, certainly, because it happened on Thursday. Street level most of whatever was going to be out this weekend wasn't at that apartment any more.

Long term, just one of a more than a dozen locations in the area that have that amount on hand -- not to mention what's around the rest of the city that could easily be moved in Williamsburg. Anyone looking who knows more than a couple of dealers won't have a problem.

The "war on drugs" didn't end in victory yesterday.

wdunleavy

you guys are a pathetic tabloid that does a bad job of capitalizing on mainstream hipsterism. turn into journalists and drop the dumb act, then YOU would be more interesting.

buttface

Angst, nonsensical capitalization of words - looks like we got a fiending cokehead here.

jaycjay

Hmm... apparently his roommate doesn't share:

http://gothamist.com/2008/03/26/things_hipsters.php#comment-1322956

jaycjay

Heh. And this comment is pretty interesting, too, given the context. Gothamist's attention to "mainstream hipsterism" is OK when the right hipster is the focus, apparently:

http://gothamist.com/2009/02/23/extra_extra_1165.php#comment-1596493

dorryan

Actually, it's being coked up that makes you boring. Now those people have a chance of being slightly more interesting.....

mrguy

there can be few worse feelings than getting pulled over with 10 kilos of blow just chillin' in your trunk.

buttface

getting busted for coke is the new getting busted for pot

kleinpeter

Heh, wow.

Kojak

"...ugh everyone's going to be so boring this weekend."

omg, like, tell me about it. The Hipster / Wall Street Bankers / Cokehead / etc, etc, etc communities are besides themselves.

What will I snort off my hooker's navel now?? Sugar?!