Bicoastal drug trafficking operation flew 22 tons of cocaine across country, prosecutors say

Five people were arrested, accused of being involved in a cocaine-shipping scheme that used private air transport companies.

The alleged trafficking operation involved hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine and cash, prosecutors say.

Five alleged members of a drug trafficking organization were arrested Tuesday and accused of using luxury private shipping companies to fly hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine and cash between Los Angeles and New York City, federal authorities said.

The alleged ringleaders of the organization — David “Gotti” Rodriguez and Raymond “White Boy” O’Connell — spent several years orchestrating the purchase and storage of bulk quantities of cocaine in Los Angeles to distribute across the East Coast before their arrest on multiple drug traff