Ramon Rodriguez, 45, was arrested Wednesday after more than a yearlong investigation by the New York City Police Department’s narcotics bureau in Brooklyn. Rodriguez has been charged with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to a statement released by the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in New York.
Undercover agents said Rodriguez sold a kilo of cocaine, worth $27,500, to an agent on Wednesday outside the Papa John’s restaurant where he works in Brooklyn. This marked the largest individual sale of the investigation, according to prosecutors.
Officials say Rodriguez, while dressed in his Papa John’s uniform, passed the kilo of cocaine to the agent in a bag along with a box of pizza and a chicken nuggets box. Rodriguez was arrested as he placed the bag of cocaine inside the trunk of the undercover officer’s car, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez used his job as a pizza deliveryman as a cover during many of the 19 sales of cocaine he is accused of making to the undercover officer during the investigation, prosecutors said. Rodriguez conducted the sales outside the Papa John’s restaurant and at his home a few blocks away, they said.
“On multiple occasions, Rodriguez told the undercover officers that he was interrupting pizza deliveries to conduct the drug transaction,” according to prosecutors.
Rodriguez was expected to be arraigned Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
When reached for comment, a Papa John’s spokesperson said the company was not aware of the case. The manager at the Papa John’s restaurant where Rodriguez works had no comment.
