{"id":332195,"date":"2026-08-28T21:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332195\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:26:09","slug":"580-pounds-10m-worth-of-cocaine-seized-from-long-island-city-storage-unit-nypd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332195\/","title":{"rendered":"580 pounds, $10M worth of cocaine seized from Long Island City storage unit: NYPD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s snowing in August.<\/p>\n<p>Police executed the \u201clargest cocaine seizure\u201d in decades this week when they seized 580 pounds of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/25\/us-news\/us-issues-security-alert-for-mexicali-over-cartel-attack-threat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cartel-tied drugs stashed<\/a> in a Long Island City storage unit, officials announced Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson Salcedo, of Englewood, New Jersey, was arrested in the middle of moving the alleged $10 million in coke Wednesday in what cops say is tied to a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/27\/us-news\/coast-guard-seizes-over-54-million-worth-of-cocaine-from-alleged-smuggling-boat-near-puerto-rico\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wide-reaching drug trafficking scheme.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More than 580 pounds of cocaine was seized from a Long Island City storage facility. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a massive shipment of narcotics, tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey. And because of the work of the investigators standing with me today, those drugs will never make it into the streets of New York City,\u201d said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators were tipped off to Salcedo\u2019s alleged scheme while following other suspected traffickers who were moving drugs between New Jersey and Upper Manhattan, Tisch said.<\/p>\n<p>Drug Enforcement Administration found $170,000 in cash, a firearm and 33 pounds of cocaine in Fort Lee, and began following Salcedo on Aug. 12.<\/p>\n<p>He allegedly delivered multiple cardboard boxes out of the Public Storage facility in Queens on Wednesday nights to a location near the northern end of Central Park, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>That is an enormous quantity of narcotics that will never be broken down, that will never be packaged, sold or distributed in our neighborhood,\u201d said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Brigitte Stelzer<\/p>\n<p>Salcedo, 35, allegedly made deliveries on Aug. 12 and Aug. 19 and was loading up his Nissan van to make another suspected delivery on Aug. 26 when cops pounced.<\/p>\n<p>There were 12 boxes inside his van \u2014 which is registered to an elevator repair company whose name cops did not disclose \u2014 and another seven on the ground near the vehicle when Salcedo was cuffed.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson Salcedo was allegedly loading the drugs into his van when he was cuffed. Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor<\/p>\n<p>There were a total of 230 brick-shaped packages of suspected cocaine in the boxes \u2014 totaling an incredible 586 pounds of the illegal drug, cops say.<\/p>\n<p>Field testing confirmed the product was cocaine, though NYPD lab analysis is still pending. <\/p>\n<p>The bricks appear to be pure, with the DEA saying the investigation \u201ctraces back to the cartel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The $10 million worth of cocaine is tied to the cartel, officials said. Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the largest seizure of cocaine by the NYPD in at least a decade, and the largest seizure by the special narcotics prosecutor\u2019s office in over two decades, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink about the scale of what was intercepted here: more than a quarter of a metric ton of cocaine sitting in boxes and ready to move through an illegal distribution network.\u2029That is an enormous quantity of narcotics that will never be broken down, that will never be packaged, sold or distributed in our neighborhood,\u201d said Tisch.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Salcedo and two others have been arrested so far as part of the sting. <\/p>\n<p>The man who accepted the deliveries has not yet been arrested. <\/p>\n<p>Salcedo was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on first- and second-degree Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s snowing in August. Police executed the \u201clargest cocaine seizure\u201d in decades this week when they seized 580&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60113,24453,303,36166,24454,9090,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,58],"class_list":["post-332195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cartels","tag-cocaine","tag-crime","tag-dea","tag-drug-trade","tag-long-island-city","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nypd","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}