Do you want to build a blowman?
According to the New York Daily News, high-level drug smuggler Albert Fortosa of Harlem was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and drug possession after authorities traced colorful children’s birthday gifts filled with cocaine back to the 24-year-old.
The drugs were disguised in kid-themed wrapping paper and included in boxes with dolls and action figures from the popular movies Frozen and Minions. Fortosa personally accepted the final of five packages that each held one kilogram of cocaine, adding up to five kilograms total with a street value of $225,000.
According to a Rutgers University study, the gifts we give to convey special messages say a lot about us.
This would have been a very, very bad message.
Fortosa sent these packages, via the U.S. Postal Service’s Express Mail, to random addresses of real people with young children, which would have made for an awkward birthday present. Fortosa would then have three underlings distribute the drugs in local nightclubs. In total, four of his associates were arrested as a result of the investigation.
CinemaBlend reports that the process of tracking down the drug kingpin was initiated through wire-tapping and surveillance, which led them to Fortosa’s primary partner in the operation, Daniel Reyes.
Deron Castro, Reyes’s attorney, asked for a more lenient bail since Reyes apparently also used the drugs he sold.
“He has suffered for a long period of time from a drug addiction,” Castro said.
Both men are facing prison time and Reyes and Fortosa are being held on bails of $150,000 and $250,000, respectively. The arrests are considered a huge win for the NYPD as they crack down on illegal drugs throughout the city.
At least now we know why those Minions are always so hard to understand.
