MANHATTAN MAN INDICTED FOR POSSESSING 15 LBS. OF COCAINE

IN HIS CAR AND FOR ATTEMPTING TO FLEE FROM POLICE IN BRONX

Officers Found $2 Million in Drugs During Traffic Stop in Mount Eden

          Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Manhattan man has been indicted on multiple Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance charges after police found 15 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of over $2 million dollars, in his car during a traffic stop in the Bronx.

        District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant was allegedly speeding and tried to flee from police when they attempted to conduct a traffic stop. When police arrested the defendant, they allegedly found six bricks of cocaine weighing a total of 15 pounds in his car. The police stopped a large amount of illegal drugs–whose profits fuel violence and other crimes–from being sold on our streets.”

           District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Melvin Read-Svazo, 33, of 1980 Park Avenue, Manhattan, was arraigned today on first and second-degree Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, two counts of third-degree Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, fourth, fifth and seventh-degree Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, third-degree Unlawful Fleeing of a Police Officer in a Motor Vehicle, second-degree Reckless Endangerment and Reckless Driving before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Efrain Alvarado. Bail was set at $75, 000 cash/$75,000 bond/$75,000 partially secured bond at 10 percent. The defendant is due back in court on July 9, 2021.

According to the investigation, at approximately 12:27 a.m. on February 7, 2021 on the corner of Mount Eden Parkway and Selwyn Avenue, police officers in a marked car saw the defendant in a white BMW X6 with temporary New Jersey license plates speeding. Police Officers activated their lights and the defendant ignored them and continued to speed, driving through a red light. Read-Svazo, who had an open warrant, allegedly got out of the car and fled on foot. Police caught up to him and he was arrested on the corner of Walton Avenue and East 175^th Street. When officers checked the defendant’s vehicle, they allegedly found two bags in the rear passenger floor which contained 6.8 kilos (15 pounds) of cocaine.

          The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Katerina Kurteva and Assistant District Attorney Amanda Hamilton, both of Trial Bureau 70, under the supervision of Jeffrey Glucksman, Chief of Trial Bureau 70, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, Deputy Chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, Chief of the Trial Division.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.