Seven Men Arrested Following FBI Raid in Mineola

An in Mineola last week resulted in the arrests of seven men who were conspiring to pose as police in order to steal drugs from dealers, court documents show.

According to papers obtained by Mineola Patch from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, defendants Dionne Raul Gonzalez, Jose M. Correa, Luis Soriano Avilla, Pablo Brito, Jhonny Castillo-Soriano, Jose Ariel Coiscou Diaz and Juan Pablo Mamalejo Troncoso all allegedly plotted to pose as police officers in order to rob what they thought was a warehouse storing 40 kilograms of cocaine.

According to the documents, the seven-man group had allegedly been running the ruse and posing as law enforcement personnel as far back as October 2010, tying up drug dealers in order to rob them of narcotics.

After a confidential source informed on the group, federal agents set up the sting operation on March 23 where the thieves believed that 40 kilograms of cocaine were being stored in a warehouse at 47 Roselle St. in Mineola.

Using two separate cars, the informant was dropped off at by the suspects before returning to pull off the robbery at about 4:26 a.m., but the defendants observed a van they deemed “suspicious.”

In reality, the van was occupied by FBI agents, who arrested the defendants when they exited their two cars after parking at two locations near the warehouse. Work gloves, two knives and a roll of packing tape were recovered from the vehicles.