Law enforcement seized nearly 45 pounds of cocaine valued at over $1 million from a Jeep Grand Cherokee traveling through Yonkers. The operation, spearheaded by the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF), culminated in the arrest of Carlos Almonte Palmers on the night of March 13, 2024.
Major drug bust on the Major Deegan
The investigation involved extensive coordination among various law enforcement agencies. The arrest was a result of meticulous surveillance and coordination among agents from the DEA, NYPD, the New York State Police, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. It ultimately revealed an operation utilizing major highways and thruways to transport illegal substances.
On March 13, 2024, NYDETF surveilled a white Jeep Grand Cherokee registered in Massachusetts to Carlos Almonte Palmers. Officers followed its journey from I-95 South to New Jersey via the George Washington Bridge. At approximately 7:50 p.m., the van briefly parked next to a tractor trailer in Secaucus, NJ. It returned to New York City and then proceeded northbound. An hour later, law enforcement intercepted the vehicle on the Major Deegan Expressway in Yonkers.
Law enforcement officers found a duffel bag containing several rectangular packages. Upon inspection, they contained 20 kilograms of a substance suspected to be drugs. Preliminary field testing determined the substance was cocaine. A more thorough analysis of the substance is pending results from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Drug traffickers use major highways and thruways to blend in with millions of travelers on the road, but instead of transporting a briefcase or luggage, Palmers was concealing one million dollars-worth of cocaine.
Frank Tarentino – DEA Special Agent in Charge
Palmer had a prior deportation from New York to the Dominican Republic in 2022. He now faces charges of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First and Third Degrees. At his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, the judge ordered him held without bail.
