Narcotics, guns found in Bellerose home leads to indictment of Victor Rodriguez of Queens
A Queens man was indicted on gun and drug charges after a contractor found a dozen pistols and drugs with a street value of $10 million to $11 million in a vacant house in Bellerose.
Victor Rodriguez, 43, of Jamaica was arraigned Friday on a 112-count indictment charging him as a major trafficker, a release from District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office said. Charges include conspiracy, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon and burglary.
According to the release, the contractor arrived at the recently sold home to do work May 30 but called 911 after spotting guns, gun parts and “large quantities of narcotics.” The two-family home at 249-27 88th Rd. is near the Nassau County border and had been abandoned and in foreclosure before it was sold.
Inside the home, authorities said they found 1.5 million glassine envelopes containing heroin or heroin mixed with fentanyl and an additional 8 kilograms of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. Authorities also said they found ammunition and a dozen loaded pistols, including five “ghost guns,” so called because they lack serial numbers and are untraceable.
Along with the contraband were items like a kilo press, respirator masks used in production and packaging of narcotics, and a drill used to manufacture of ghost guns, according to the release.
Authorities said they found parking tickets for a blue Infiniti SUV tied to Rodriguez at the site and reviewed surveillance footage that showed him entering and leaving with coolers of “what appeared to be 15 kilos of narcotics.”
A lawyer for Rodriguez, Mark Cohen, declined to comment, but according to court records, Rodriguez pleaded not guilty before Judge Toni Cimino in Queens Supreme Criminal Court. He was remanded without bail and is scheduled to make a second appearance Monday.
Rodriguez’s name does not appear on property records Newsday reviewed. In a voicemail, Queens district attorney spokesman Frank Sobrino said Rodriguez had no connection to the house, which had been abandoned for roughly five years before it was sold.
According to property records, a Queens County Supreme Court-ordered referee sold the property for $501,000 last spring to an Evanston, Illinois, company, Chondrite REO.
A voicemail left at a number associated with Chondrite was not returned. Martha Taylor, the Queens lawyer who acted as referee, said the property had been in foreclosure and abandoned for “quite some time” before the sale.
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