An accused Colombian drug kingpin and his cohort have been extradited to New York after allegedly smuggling millions of dollars in heroin — including some sewn into couches — into the US.
Sergio Zuilanny Gordillo Joya and Luis Fernando Galleano Gasca allegedly ran an international drug empire that included massive shipments of heroin destined for New York City, according to prosecutors.
Their indictment centered around a bust in Miami, in which the duo had heroin packets sewn into couches transported by freighter ship from Colombia to Florida.
When the ship “Seaboard Pride” docked in the Port of Miami with a shipment of furniture Jan. 10, 2012, suspicious authorities sliced open the couches and seized 35 pounds of heroin from four of them.
The drug lords were allegedly planning to move the illicit goods to New York for sale on the streets.
They pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Joya was flown from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday. He’d been living there, working in a restaurant, after fleeing authorities in Colombia.
Gasca was extradited from Bogota on Dec. 12.
The pair was slapped with drug trafficking, criminal possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy raps and face possible life imprisonment.
“High-level foreign traffickers shipped enough heroin to flood the streets of the New York metropolitan area, looking for millions of dollars to fund other criminal operations in return,” said Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
The takedown was a joint effort of New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the NYPD and Colombian authorities.