Huge cocaine bust yields guilty plea

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The man arrested in a huge 2013 drug bust in one of the borough’s quietest neighborhoods has pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors.

On Dec. 3, Juan Rojas pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony charge stemming from the Oct. 2013 seizure of $3 million in cocaine and cash at 244 Fieldston Terrace.

Mr. Rojas, 32, agreed to serve four and a half years in prison for criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree.

He was indicted last year on criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

On Sept. 26 around 1:30 p.m., agents raided an apartment at 244 Fieldston Terrace in Riverdale and found 31 kilograms of cocaine, $1.6 million in cash and two loaded semi-automatic pistols, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). 

At the time, DEA agents believed that he was trafficking about 50 kilograms of cocaine per month in the apartment he shared with his girlfriend Ana Then, 22. 

Ms. Then, the leaseholder for the apartment near Horace Mann and other schools, pleaded guilty to criminal facilitation and received a sentence of probation. 

Authorities said that Mr. Rojas, who is from the Dominican Republic, is in the country illegally and is expected to face federal charges for illegal re-entry into the United States. 

They anticipate that he will be deported upon his release from prison.

drug bust, DEA, Fieldston Terrace, Plea