SUSAN WATTS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly (at podium) announces the indictment of 41 members of a high-end cocaine delivery ring in Manhattan following an investigation dating to early 2011. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. is to Kelly's left, and city Housing Authority chairman John Rhea is to Vance's left. The probe netted suspects from three street gangs that operated out of city housing projects on the lower East Side.
Big-mouth accused kingpin Adrian (Ace) Rivera, 24, sparked the investigation when undercover cops began purchasing large amounts of cocaine from him in early 2011, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Friday in announcing the takedown.
But investigators only knew him by his nickname. They searched social media and soon found his Facebook and Instagram accounts, which they used as a jumping off point for their online sleuthing.
The investigation eventually led to the indictment of Rivera and 40 alleged members of three street gangs — the “Money Boyz,” “Blocc Boyz” and the “Stack Gang” — that operated out of housing projects in the lower East Side.
By following Rivera’s online tracks, investigators learned he often bragged on social media about partying with his stripper girlfriend, Krista Zuniga, at Perfection, a jiggle joint near LaGuardia Airport in Queens. Rivera regularly met with his crew at the Queens strip club.
As they continued to dig into Rivera’s online world, aided by his online bragging, they found he was operating a drug business that sold more than $1 million worth of cocaine over the two years that followed the beginning of the probe.
“He was quite popular on social media, often flashing gang signs and cash ... and associating himself with known street crews on the lower East Side,” Kelly said.
JEFFERSON SIEGEL
Krista Zuniga, the stripper girlfriend of accused ringleader Adrian Rivera, according to sources, appears at her arraignment in Manhttan Supreme Court on Friday.
Rivera’s network included more than a dozen livery cab drivers and runners, who would deliver coke to a clientele ranging from investment bankers to college students, Kelly added.
“As this indictment reveals, residents of Manhattan today can get nearly everything delivered to their doorstep — from dinner to dry cleaning, and even cocaine,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said at Friday’s press conference.
The blow was marked up significantly from the typical street value of the drug, about $80 a gram.
The “Money Boyz,” “Blocc Boyz” and the “Stack Gang” all run out of three housing projects: the Baruch, Jacob Riis and Campos Houses.
The crews were sometimes at odds with each other, law enforcement sources said, but all were getting a piece of the action from the ring’s high-priced product.
Most of the 41 alleged pushers who were indicted as a result of the investigation were arrested Friday and were expected to be arraigned throughout the day Friday.
“All of these defendants are a part of a narcotics organization, or group, that has made a tremendous amount of money distributing narcotics throughout the city of New York as well as upstate and New Jersey,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Michelle Warren said at an arraignment Friday morning.
With Shayna Jacobs
jkemp@nydailynews.com