A pair of suspected Mexican drug-cartel smugglers was busted with a $1.2 million stash of crystal meth — but had to be freed thanks to New York’s lax bail laws, authorities said Monday.
The two California men, Luis Estrada and Carlos Santos, were allegedly caught red-handed by the US Drug Enforcement Administration as part of a multi-agency investigation. Yet frustrated agents had to stand by and watch as the suspects were cut loose on just supervised release, the federal agency said.
That’s because the two men could only be charged with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as opposed to a narcotic, under the state’s outdated drug laws, authorities said. And the rap does not qualify for bail according to the Empire State’s soft-on-crime 2019 bail-reform measures, they said.
“This is a serious problem,” said New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan to The Post.
“The failure to include methamphetamine crimes among bail-eligible offenses was probably an oversight.
“At the time the bail laws were changed, New York City was not a distribution hub for methamphetamine. Now it is, and we are unable to even ask for bail, even if we arrest someone with no ties to the city and a load worth millions of dollars,” Brennan said.
“I hope that when legislators are better informed they will make a change,” she added.
Authorities said Estrada, 19, and the 34-year-old Santos were nabbed with 165 pounds of crystal meth while attempting to make two drop-offs.
According to the criminal complaint, Estrada was arrested near the South Street Seaport in Manhattan shortly before 10 a.m. on July 5 lugging a suitcase with 40 pounds of the drug inside.
On July 8, authorities said, Santos was arrested in Inwood in Manhattan with 100 pounds of crystal meth and a small amount of cocaine.
Yet both men were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court within a day of each other last week — and freed on supervised release.
“Under current New York State law, neither man could be charged with a bail eligible offense,” said a joint statement from Brennan’s office, the DEA and Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
“Methamphetamine is categorized as a controlled substance, but not a narcotic drug. Regardless of the amount of methamphetamine involved, and regardless of a defendant’s lack of connections to New York State, under current law judges may not set bail on cases involving the possession of only methamphetamine.”
DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino noted in the release that “methamphetamine is running rampant throughout the country, causing addiction, overdoses and poisonings.
According to the agency, the feds seized 78 kilos of the highly addictive drug last year — and a whopping 1,108 kilos so far this year.
“This year, DEA has seen methamphetamine seizures in New York increase 1300% since 2021, indicating New York is a bullseye for traffickers.
“This seizure is a calculated treachery by Mexican cartels to flood the United States with their poison and expand their customer base while driving addiction and increasing profit margins,” he added.
In a report released in January by the New York state Department of Health, deaths involving methamphetamines spiked from 0.3 per 100,000 residents in 2016 to 1.7 per 100,000 in 2020.
The state saw 184 meth overdose deaths in 2020, with most of the deaths — 152 — involving a mix of fentanyl, the data shows.
