A cocaine sting operation that began over a year ago with the suicide of an investment banker who jumped from his high-rise apartment in May 2015 has ended with the arrests of over a dozen people, including a Fox Business producer, an executive at Chipotle and an employee at Merrill Lynch.
Last year’s suicide led authorities to some cocaine and the number of a drug dealer in the investment banker’s apartment. From there they unraveled what is described as “a high-end, on-demand service” that used many locations throughout Manhattan to service an associate at a real estate firm, a senior associate at the health care advisory and consulting firm, an underwriting consultant, a blogger at The Huffington Post and many others.
The service charged about twice what someone would pay for cocaine on the street, a markup for their convenient delivery, and was apparently enticing enough to get the attention of Katie Welnhofer, who is a producer on “Mornings With Maria” on Fox Business and Mark Crumpacker, the chief marketing and development officer at Chipotle.
The dealers themselves are charged with selling over $75,000 worth of cocaine.
The Blaze reports:
Members of the cocaine trafficking ring used Duane Reade and CVS stores to make their sales, the New York Daily News reported. Sales were also made by dealers at bodegas, bars, hotels, restaurants and some of the customers’ workplaces.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the dealers charged anywhere between $200 and $300 for a premium delivery service which is at least double what the drugs would cost on the streets.
“This was a high-end, on-demand service,” Vance said.
