BERKS COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Two men were arrested for their alleged involvement in a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation at an illegal gambling club in Reading.<\/p>\n
In an undercover investigation, Joel Elivo, 56, was identified as the manager of an illegal social club and gambling establishment in the 300 block of N. 9th Street in Reading, according to the Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, police found that the establishment was operating illegally as a gambling venue and served as an illegal \u201cafter-hours\u201d location where violent crime would often occur. In addition, officials said the club served as the primary meeting location and distribution point for the narcotics.<\/p>\n
Officials said that Junior Garcia-Rincon, 28, operated as a source of supply of cocaine for the network.<\/p>\n
Police exercised search warrants for the social club and a residence in the 100 block of Peach Street.<\/p>\n
When Elvio and Garcia-Rincon were arrested, officials reportedly seized a kilogram of cocaine with an estimated street value of $100,000 and around $20,000 in cash.<\/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 according to a statement released by the Berks County District Attorney John Adams.<\/p>\n
Elvio and Garcia-Rincon are being held at Berks County Sheriff\u2019s Central Processing Center. <\/p>\n
Following their arraignment, bail was set for $500,000 each.<\/p>\n
Detectives from the Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Drug Task Force worked with Pennsylvania State Police and Reading Police Department for this multi-stage undercover narcotics investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKS COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Two men were arrested for their alleged involvement in a large-scale cocaine trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-283866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283866","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=283866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}