Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Man used car batteries to smuggle heroin
NORRISTOWN >> An East Norriton man used retrofitted car batteries to smuggle heroin from Atlanta to New York City, via Montgomery County, but was stopped in his tracks with more than three kilos of the drug in King of Prussia, according to authorities.
David Pacheco, 44, of the 200 block of West Johnson Highway, was arraigned Wednesday before District Court Judge James P. Gallagher of Bridgeport on charges of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver heroin, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and criminal use of communication facilities in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between April 2015 and Jan. 10.
Pacheco, according to authorities, also owns D&J Towing in Norristown. Pacheco is being held on $1 million bail.
“Heroin is cheap and it’s deadly and it’s impacting the lives of too many families in Montgomery County and across this nation,” District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said at a news conference where he announced Pacheco’s arrest. “We have severed an artery in a significant heroin trafficking organization, ultimately stopping the flow of this deadly drug into and through our area by David Pacheco.
“Taking more than three kilos of heroin out of this pipeline is a huge success for the safety and the wellbeing of the people of this county and our larger region,” Steele added. “We hope that this will help law enforcement better combat heroin, knowing that this is how it’s being concealed and transported.”
As Steele spoke he pointed to “the massive amounts of poison,” the three kilograms of heroin, which was displayed on a table in front of him, along with cash, the car batteries and a gun.
Authorities, who dubbed the nine month investigation “Operation EverStart,” documented at least nine trips that Pacheco made since September 2015 to service wholesale heroin buyers in New York. Authorities estimated Pacheco transported a total of about 27 kilos of heroin, nearly 60 pounds, with a street value of about $9 million, during those trips.
Steele said the investigation revealed that each time Pacheco drove to Atlanta he received kilos of her--
oin in retrofitted, working car batteries, which he then drove to Montgomery County and then to the Bronx, N.Y. Once Pacheco was paid for the heroin in New York he would return to Atlanta with the cash for his supplier there.
Pacheco was arrested Jan. 10 at the King of Prussia toll plaza of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in his Ford F-250 pickup truck with three kilos of uncut heroin, which had a street value of about $1 million.
“It was hidden in a retrofitted car battery and despite concealing three kilos of heroin it still powered his truck. While three kilos of heroin is one of the largest heroin seizures that we’ve had, it’s only a portion of the heroin Pachecowas involved in distributing,” Steele alleged.
Steele said the arrest is the result of extensive cooperation among federal, state and local authorities.
Steele was joined at the news conference by Berks District Attorney John T. Adams.
“This is a scourge of this poison that not only affects Montgomery County, it affects Berks County. We are pleased to be part of this team. We assisted in this investigation and we’re always going to be there because it isn’t confined just to one county, it’s a regional problem and a statewide problemand a national problem,” Adams said. “We’re going to continue to work as a team to combat this problem.”
In court papers, authorities alleged Pacheco was “actively involved in a Mexican based drug trafficking organization.”
The investigation began last April after members of the county’s Narcotics Enforcement Team arrested two Mexican Nationals residing in Norristown after they were found with four kilograms of heroin, according to court papers. Three of the kilograms were hidden in a retrofitted car battery that was seized from a George Street residence, court papers alleged.
Detectives disassembling the battery found a void in the bottom portion, which contained six compacted blocks of a white substance identified as heroin, according to court documents.
The subsequent investigation uncovered a conspiracy involving a Mexican drug trafficking organization involved in smuggling heroin from Mexico to the U.S., Steele alleged. Pacheco was identified in court documents as“a primary subject of this conspiracy.”
The investigation of Pacheco included information from confidential sources, electronic and physical surveillance, including courtordered wiretaps on Pacheco’s four cell phones, as well as an analysis of call detail records and the use of the county grand jury.
Authorities said Pacheco’s Atlanta supplier of heroin and his buyer in New York have also been charged in connection with the alleged conspiracy in those jurisdictions.
When hewas interviewed by detectives after his Jan. 10 arrest, Pacheco admitted that someone in Georgia put the battery underneath the hood of his truck but he denied knowing what was in the car battery. Pacheco said when he returned to his Norristown business he awaited a phone call instructing him where to deliver the battery in The Bronx section of New York, according to court papers.