Cocaine Seized in N.J. May Be Linked to Sylmar

Federal narcotics agents and the FBI are investigating the possibility that nearly 900 pounds of cocaine found hidden in a truckload of apples in New Jersey came from a warehouse in Sylmar where a record 21.4 tons of the drug was seized recently, authorities said Thursday.

“We don’t know that the truck drove up to the Sylmar warehouse and left with the load of cocaine,” said Ralph Lochridge, spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles. “But that possibility is in sharp focus because of certain commonalities we’ve found.”

The 45-foot refrigerated truck-trailer used to haul 871 pounds of cocaine from Los Angeles to New Jersey was registered locally to a Maywood address. Authorities would not say what link, if any, there is between the Maywood address and the Sylmar warehouse.

Authorities did note, however, that some of the cocaine seized at both locations was wrapped in paper covered with identical markings.

Arrested in the New Jersey seizure Monday were Segundino Reyes Flores, 36, a Cuban national living in Miami, and Carlos Arturo Ceron, 33, a Colombian living in Miami Springs, Fla.

The New Jersey drug bust came 11 days after authorities raided the Sylmar warehouse and discovered $6.7 billion worth of cocaine.

“If it is connected, it probably would have been the last load out of Sylmar (before the place was raided),” said Milton Smilek, DEA group supervisor in Newark, N.J.