Pizza isn’t all they were slinging.
Three people were charged with running a drug ring out of a Bronx pizzeria after authorities allegedly seized more than 100 pounds of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit substances — worth an estimated $4 million — from the restaurant.
Accused traffickers Gaudencio Rosendo Perez, Zulema Cardenas Espinoza and Alexander Samboy were using the eatery, Mexzzarella Pizzeria — which sits directly across the street from a public elementary school — as a front for their drug-peddling operation, authorities said in a Monday statement.
“This drug trafficking organization was cooking up more than pizza in the Bronx,” Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division, said in the release.
When members of local, state and federal law enforcement searched the pizza joint on October 19, they allegedly found 42 kilograms of suspected cocaine; a kilogram of heroin and fentanyl; 1,000 glassine envelopes of Oxycodone and fentanyl; big rocks of cocaine; and about 100 vials of crack cocaine, the statement said.
Authorities had been surveilling the toxic trio the day of the big bust and watched as they walked in and out of the Soundview Avenue pizzeria carrying bags and backpacks, officials said.
Officers pulled Samboy over on Metcalf Avenue after he drove away in a silver Subaru Impreza with Connecticut license plates.
During the traffic stop, authorities found 5 kilos of cocaine wrapped in black tape and labeled “R2,” according to the statement.
Agents and task force officers arrested Perez and Espinoza at the pizzeria, it added.
Inside, police also allegedly found a kilo press and about $40,000 in the basement.
The three had stored the vials of crack near the pizza counter for “convenient sales,” authorities added.
The total amount of drugs seized was estimated to have a street value of more than $4 million, officials said.
“The large stash of cocaine found in the basement of Mexzzarella Pizza is very significant because it had the potential to supply drug networks throughout the Northeast,” Tarentino said. “Cocaine is being laced with fentanyl, which is contributing to poisonings and unnecessary deaths in New York and across the country.”
Perez, Espinoza and Samboy face charges of operating as a major trafficker and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the statement.
They were arraigned Friday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Perez was remanded, while the court set bail for the other two at $150,000 each.
“This highly profitable Bronx-based narcotics operation appeared to operate as a wholesaler and distributor of cocaine and fentanyl laced products, and was advertised as an ‘inexpensive Mexican pizza spot,’” NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement.
“Our office will continue to work with our federal, state and local enforcement partners to stem the distribution of lethal drugs that claimed the lives of a record high number of people in our city last year.”
More than 111,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2022, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of those, nearly three-quarters involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
In New York City, more than 3,000 people overdosed and died since 2022, according to the city Department of Health.
Members of the DEA, NYPD, New York State Police, New York City Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor and Rockland County District Attorney’s Office participated in the operation.
