A long-haul trucker from Selden who was arrested after allegedly driving 33 pounds of heroin from California to Long Island worked for a company called Good Guys Transport Corp., according to investigators.
Jeen Blake, 40, was indicted on charges of conspiracy and criminal possession of a controlled substance along with his boss, 42-year-old Dorian Cabrera of Queens, the trucking company’s owner.
“These arrests stopped this highly addictive opioid drug from flooding our communities and prevented senseless overdoses that stem from heroin addiction,” New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said Wednesday.
Bratton was speaking at a joint press conference with officials from New York State police, Manhattan prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration—together forming the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (DETF). Blake and Cabrera were among nine suspects rounded up in two unrelated alleged heroin trafficking rings. Authorities seized a total of 25 kilograms of heroin worth $12 million in the busts, officials said.
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Blake allegedly hid 15 kilograms of heroin—some of which were formed in the shape of shoe soles—in a secret compartment, or “trap,” on the back wall of the truck’s cab that required special tools to open, police said. Investigators had tracked him from The Golden State, where he allegedly paid $750,000 for the heroin, to a parking lot on Old Willets Point Path in Hauppauge, where Blake and Cabrera were taken into custody after they made the exchange on Aug. 26, authorities said.
Blake was found with more than $300,000 cash and Cabrera had $10,000 cash, they added. When investigators raided Cabrera’s home, they seized $190,000 cash and high-end jewelry. Another $107,000 was seized from Cabrera’s wife’s safety deposit box at a Chase Bank in Valley Stream.
The heroin is believed to have been destined for New York City and Long Island, where glassine envelopes of the deadly drug sell for between $5 and $20.
The other seven suspects that authorities arrested after the trucking bust were allegedly involved in a Bronx heroin mill—where drug traffickers break down kilos into glassine envelopes for street-level sales.
Bail for Blake and Cabrera was set at $150,000 bond or $75,000 cash each following their arraignments at Manhattan criminal court.
