By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 22 – Ervin Ortiz was arrested as part of a multi-defendant narcotics conspiracy.
On May 20, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff held his sentencing. Inner City Press covered it, below.
Co-defendant Eddie Cotto has been on trial; on July 15 an FBI Special Agent identified him and described controlled buys on Lexington and 110th Street, how he would park his car on 109th Street to observe.
Now on July 21-22, "EDDIE COTTO, a/k/a “Eddie Diamond,” was found guilty in Manhattan federal court following a week-long jury trial before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff. COTTO is scheduled to appear for sentencing before Judge Rakoff on November 3, 2021... EDDIE COTTO was the leader of a drug trafficking organization that operated in New York, New York, and controlled drug sales of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl in and around a New York City Housing Authority building at 1760 Lexington Avenue. COTTO supervised and coordinated the supply of narcotics to his co-defendants, and stored the DTO’s narcotics in the locked janitorial closets of the Building. COTTO acted as the gatekeeper of the Building generally from the safety of a Winnebago that COTTO parked in the vicinity of the Building." Winnebago no more. [And Judge Rakoff moved on to the Sidney Scales trial, which Inner City Press is also covering.]
Back on June 30 the US Attorney's Office filed its motions in limine, arguing that evidence of Cotto's previous drug offenses should come in, but his conditions of pre-trial detention should not. We'll see - the trial , according to the May 14 docket entry, is set for July 12.
On May 20 Judge Rakoff said that while Ortiz had not met his responsibilities, neither had society met its responsibilities to Ortiz.
He said Ortiz' crimes were not violent, and all sprang from addiction that was never treated. He said if he had his druthers, some of these drugs would be legalized.
The sentence was 66 months. It is a sentencing the transcript of which is worth reading.
The case is US v. Cotto, et al., 18-cr-413 (Rakoff)
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