READING, Pa. – Two Reading men face several charges of illegal drug trafficking and gambling for operating a distribution point for bulk illegal narcotics trafficking, police say.<\/p>\n
56-year-old Joel Elivo and 28-year-old Junior Garcia-Rincon have been charged with possession and delivery of a controlled substance, criminal conspiracy, and other related charges, a news release says.<\/p>\n
Officials say the men were taken into custody after authorities completed a multi-stage narcotics investigation that targeted a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation centered around a social and gambling club in the City of Reading.<\/p>\n
According to detectives, the investigation identified Elivo as the manager of a social club and gambling establishment in the 300 block of N. 9th Street in Reading. The club served as a primary meeting location and distribution point for bulk illegal narcotics trafficking, police say.<\/p>\n
Additionally, authorities determined that Garcia-Rincon operated as a supplier of bulk cocaine for this network.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, police determined that not only was the establishment operating illegally as a gambling venue but also served as an illegal \u201cafter-hours\u201d location and was a magnet for violent crime.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, authorities searched both Elivo\u2019s residence and the social club, seizing one kilogram of cocaine with a street value of $100,000 and approximately $20,000 in cash, a news release says.<\/p>\n
Police say both Joel Elivo and Junior Garcia-Rincon were placed into custody without incident.<\/p>\n
The men were transported to the Berks County Sheriff\u2019s Central Processing Center, and bail was set at $500,000 each, police say.<\/p>\n
\u201cIllegal gambling houses and unlicensed \u201cafter-hours\u201d clubs are not harmless neighborhood gathering spots but are unregulated hubs that invite broader illicit activity that destabilize our communities and neighborhoods,\u201d said Berks County District Attorney John Adams<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, gambling operations have attempted to hide under the guise of private social clubs while operating outside the law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Adams says the DA\u2019s office is committed to shutting down these illegal establishments and dismantling the illicit networks running inside them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis enforcement action sends a message: if you run an illegal gambling den or use an after-hours club to push illegal drugs in Berks County, we will shut down your operation, seize your illicit proceeds, and hold you fully accountable under the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This is an ongoing investigation. If anyone has information, please contact the Berks County Detectives at 610-478-7171.<\/p>\n
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can submit a tip to Crime Alert Berks County by either calling 877-373-9913, downloading the ALERTBERKS app on your mobile device, or by typing ALERTBERKS along with your tip to 847411.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – Two Reading men face several charges of illegal drug trafficking and gambling for operating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[97280,26724,10739,20372,5876,11009,118378,7159,5553,128,130,129,14493],"class_list":["post-283858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-after-hours-club","tag-club","tag-cocaine","tag-drug-bust","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-drugs","tag-drugs-seized","tag-gambling","tag-narcotics","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}