Two men – including a suspected gangster with links to New York mafia families – were charged after police seized large quantities of drugs from a private jet bound for Liverpool.
United States Customs and Border Protection agents carried out a search of a private jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at around 2.30pm on November 16 2023. Agents, who boarded the plane bound for Liverpool John Lennon Airport while it remained on the ground, seized 12.6kg of cocaine and over 230kg of cannabis from a number of suitcases stashed inside the private jet.
Approximately 1,000 cartridges of suspected tetrahydrocannabinol, known on the streets as THC, were also found in a cardboard box. All were tested on board the plane and were confirmed to be illegal contraband, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent confirmed in a written submission included in US Department of Justice court documents seen by the ECHO.
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Following the seizure, officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department arrested Leonardo Petrosillo, 45, of West Milford, New Jersey and Edwin Spears, 49, of Newark, New Jersey and two other passengers, US court documents revealed. The only passengers on the plane were Petrosillo, Spears and three unnamed passengers – Spears’ girlfriend, an adult exotic dancer and her friend, the court documents added.
The adult exotic dancer, from Maryland, was offered money to take an Uber to New Jersey, board the plane, and claim that some of the baggage was hers. US authorities alleged the dancer and her friend were on the flight as part of a ruse to account for all the luggage.
Petrosillo was also allegedly in possession of three fraudulent New Jersey drivers’ licences and two fraudulent social security guards. The court documents show that law enforcement agents, including from the FBI, obtained CCTV footage from outside a hotel in the vicinity of Teterboro Airport.
The footage allegedly shows Spears and Petrosillo transporting two luggage carts between the hotel and two vehicles at around 4am on the day of their arrests. The court documents claim the large pieces of luggage are consistent with those found on board the private plane.
Law enforcement agents also collected surveillance camera footage of the car park outside the terminal around an hour before they raided the plane. The indictment said three vehicles arrived at the terminal carrying individuals who “appeared to be Spears, Spears’s girlfriend and Petrosillo”.
Customs and Border Protection agents reported that Spears, who also goes by the name “Money”, claimed ownership of the drugs during the seizure. The court documents show Spears was prosecuted for a burglary in 2013 and received a four-year sentence.
But the New York Post reported Spears’ criminal history dates back to 1992, and he was collared in 2010 in New Jersey on charges of money laundering, bribery and racketeering stemming from a scheme to smuggle drugs and mobile phones into a state prison.
Spears, who was serving a prison sentence at the time, allegedly worked with a former prison officer and Joseph Perna, a member of the Lucchese crime family to bring the contraband in. According to an affidavit filed in connection with that case by the State of New Jersey Attorney General, Spears admitted to be a “five-star general” in the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods.
Both men were detained by police and charged with a number of offences. Both men were charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; possession with intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to export controlled substances and attempted export of controlled substances, while Petrosillo was charged with possession of five or more false identification documents.
The US Department of Justice court documents said the men were held by police due to them being “too great a flight risk to be released”. The documents alleged: “The context in which Spears and Petrosillo were arrested should put any doubt about their ability to flee. They were caught on a privately chartered plane trying to travel outside of the United States, thus, they plainly have the means to flee if given the chance to do so.”
The two men pleaded not guilty to the drug conspiracy charges in Brooklyn Federal Court. They are currently held in the Metropolitan Detention Centre ahead of trial. The New York Post reported the police did not seize the plane, but would not confirm who owned it.
The ECHO approached Merseyside Police for comment regarding the incident. The National Crime Agency declined to comment.
The Liverpool Echo – Merseyside news communities
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
