Puerto Rico man convicted of trafficking tons of cocaine hidden inside furniture

Vanessa Arredondo, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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A man previously convicted of drug trafficking was found guilty of leading a multi-year scheme in which cocaine was transported to the U.S. from Puerto Rico inside custom-built furniture, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Following a one-week trial, a jury convicted Omar Lopez Castro, 48, of Carolina, Puerto Rico, for conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute narcotics, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, said in a release. Castro, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 22, faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

"The unanimous jury verdict holds Omar Lopez Castro accountable for his leadership role in a widespread cocaine trafficking organization that flooded the streets with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Williams added that Castro previously served a 10-year sentence for trafficking cocaine from Puerto Rico to New York "and now faces the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence for his crime."

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Cocaine concealed in custom cube-shaped coffee tables

Officials said when Castro was released from prison, he returned to trafficking tons of cocaine — this time hidden in furniture.

Castro connected with a drug trafficking organization and hired its members to ship his cocaine to the U.S. inside custom-built furniture, federal prosecutors said. In total, the street value of the substance owned and trafficked by Castro exceeded $8 million.

Between September 2018 and October 2022, Castro participated in the scheme from Puerto Rico, helping move more than 30 cargo shipments to the continental U.S., officials said. The cocaine was hidden in more than 80 custom cube-shaped pieces of furniture, like coffee tables, according to the release.

"While the organization falsely represented that the cargo contained furniture, that furniture in fact concealed hundred-kilogram quantities of cocaine," the Justice Department said. =

During the investigation, law enforcement seized about 770 pounds of cocaine from four of the group’s shipments. In total, about 9,900 pounds of cocaine, worth at least $135,000,000 were shipped in the scheme, officials said.

Officials said Castro owned about 604 pounds of the cocaine shipped from Puerto Rico to the East Coast.

Many of the shipments were sent to addresses in the Southern District of New York, including Yonkers and the Bronx, the release added. The cargo was also shipped to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cocaine trafficker convicted of transporting narcotics in furniture