It was established by evidence at the trial that the two men and other cohorts had arranged, through phone calls and meetings in the summer of 2008 with a broker in Newburgh, to purchase 10 kilograms of cocaine. What they didn’t know was that the anticipated seller of the coke was a confidential informant working with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Westchester County Drug Enforcement Task Force.Jimenez and Gonzalez were arrested on September 12, 2008, on the day of the deal, while they and others were on the way from Yonkers to Newburgh with $145,000 in cash to buy the drugs.
Concealed in a trap within the Jeep Cherokee the men were was the money and a loaded .357 magnum handgun.The broker in Newburgh, Ignacio Balbuena, pled guilty on April to conspiracy to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine and to illegally re-entering the US. Hugo Ventura, one of the purchasers, pled guilty on April 3 to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and carrying a firearm during the cocaine conspiracy.Ventura and Balbuena are both scheduled to be sentenced in July.
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