By Forum Staff
A White Plains man, purportedly the leader of a complex drug-dealing operation that allegedly transported truck-loads of illicit narcotics across the country—including carfentanil, a substance 100 times more deadly than fentanyl—has been apprehended and indicted, Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan announced Thursday.
Giovanny Arias, 49, was arraigned on Oct. 21 on a 23-count indictment charging him with operating as a major trafficker, first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia, and numerous other offenses. Arias was ordered remanded without bail. His next court date is Nov. 21.
Over the course of a long-term investigation, which Ryan said began more than two years ago, law enforcement allegedly recovered six firearms, 68 pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of fentanyl, 11 pounds of carfentanil, and eight pounds of heroin, in addition to various quantities of the anesthetic ketamine and tramadol, an opioid pain medication.
According to authorities, law enforcement began the investigation by looking into the activities of defendant Julian Tovar, 31,who is alleged to be both a drug dealer and gun trafficker. Tovar and Arias allegedly worked together trafficking drugs. On May 3, 2018, police executed a court-authorized search warrant for Tovar’s Woodside apartment and allegedly recovered five handguns, large-capacity magazines, more than two pounds of cocaine, and more than $11,000 in cash.
According to the charges, between July 2018 and September 2019, Arias and his 11 co-defendants operated a nationwide drug enterprise utilizing long-haul truck drivers who allegedly transported drugs from the southern border of California to Queens.
According to the indictment, on July 21, 2018, Arias allegedly directed co-defendant John Pareja, 38, to make a pick up on the 22nd from a truck stop in New Jersey. Pareja was followed from that truck depot and stopped on the Van Wyck Expressway service road at Jewel Avenue later that day. Law enforcement executed a court-authorized search warrant for the vehicle Pareja was driving and police allegedly recovered 37 pounds of fentanyl, along with just over two pounds of ketamine. On Oct. 29, 2018, Arias allegedly directed co-defendant Victor Salazar, 59, to pick up 35 pounds of cocaine and more than four pounds of heroin from another rest stop in New Jersey. Salazar was stopped by police afterwards in Astoria, where cops allegedly recovered the drugs.
According to the indictment, on April 17, 2019, co-defendant Mauricio Arevalo, 50, delivered a black duffle bag from the cab of his truck to Jamaica resident Esther Riano-Lopez, who took the bag to a stash-house in Springfield Gardens, where Arias’s associates—defendants Carlos Hidalgo, 38, of Jamaica and Armando de Jesus Moreno-Perez, 55, of East Elmhurst—were allegedly waiting to receive the drugs. At that time, Arias allegedly directed another co-defendant Hector Maren, 46, to come to the Queens stash-house to cut and repackage the narcotics.
According to the charges, on April 18, 2019, members of the NYPD’s Major Case Squad executed a court-authorized search warrant for the stash-house and allegedly recovered the black duffle bag along with 10 cylindrically-shaped packages containing a total of 11 pounds of a combination of carfentanil and fentanyl.
Photo Courtesy of DEA
