A TIP LEADS DETECTIVES TO $100 MILLION IN DRUGS

TOTOWA, N.J. - Acting on a tip, state police detectives seized an estimated
$100 million worth of cocaine and marijuana on Sunday that had been brought
to New Jersey in two tractor-trailers loaded with rotting yellow peppers,
the authorities said Tuesday.

Col. Carson J. Dunbar Jr., the head of the state police, said the wholesale
value of the cache - $24.5 million - equaled nearly half of the wholesale
worth of all narcotics that the state police seized in 1999.

"This was a big, big seizure," Dunbar said during a news conference at a
state police troop headquarters here.

He said the cache included 1,870 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street
value of about $85 million and about 1,900 pounds of marijuana with an
estimated street value of about $15 million. Five New York City residents
and an Arizona man were arrested and charged with conspiracy and possession
of drugs.

All have been ordered held without bail, said John Hagerty, a spokesman for
the state police. Detectives also confiscated $86,464 in cash from one of
the trailer trucks, he said.

The origin of the shipment remains under investigation, Dunbar said.

The state police learned about the shipments on Friday and began a stakeout
at a leased warehouse in Fairview in southern Bergen County, he said. One
of the two trailer trucks was already parked inside, and the second arrived
about 3 p.m. on Sunday, he said. Shortly afterward, he said, the trucks
went to a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike a few miles south of Fairview.

About the same time, a van left the warehouse, loaded with the packages of
cocaine. Detectives stopped the vehicle and arrested its occupants,
identified as Francisco Reyes, 25, and Carlos Torres, 32, both of the Bronx.

At the rest area, detectives seized the two trucks and arrested four other
suspects. They included two Bronx men, William Caraballo, 43, and Anthony
Manzanet, 30; Jacqueline Nunez, 35, of Manhattan, and Edgar Gracia, 26, of
Nogales, Ariz., the authorities said.