3 Sentenced In Undercover Drug Operation

October 13, 1990|by DEBBIE GARLICKI, The Morning Call

Three men from the Dominican Republic will be serving three- to six-year sentences and may be deported for attempting to sell more than a kilo of cocaine to an undercover Allentown police officer.

Jose Mejia, 40, Rey Elipidio Tejada, 41, and Raphael Fermin, 51, pleaded no contest this week in Lehigh County Court to conspiring to deliver 1-1/8 kilos of cocaine with a street value of at least $110,000.

The three could have faced a mandatory four years in prison, but the plea agreement with prosecutors called for a minimum three-year sentence, which was handed down by Judge David E. Mellenberg. Assistant District Attorney Maria Dantos said she believed the sentence was sufficient because the men probably will be deported.

Police said an informant arranged for the undercover police officer to meet drug dealers March 2 at a Phillipsburg parking lot.

Police said a blue Cadillac driven by Mejia pulled into a parking lot and he talked with the undercover officer and the informant. Mejia then waved to two men in a pickup truck according to Dantos.

Tejada was driving the truck.

Dantos said the men discussed the price and where they would make the transaction. The officer asked to see what he was buying, but Mejia said he wanted to see the money first.

The five agreed to go to Allentown and meet at a parking lot on Airport Road.

Dantos said Tejada pointed his finger at the undercover officer as though his hand were a gun and said, "If anything goes wrong, bang!"

The five men drove in three separate vehicles to Allentown. When the defendants parked the Cadillac and the truck, vice officers converged on the men and arrested them.

The cocaine was found in a locked compartment on the bed of the pickup truck.

The defendants had agreed to sell the cocaine for $34,000. If cut once with an additive used to increase the quantity, the cocaine would fetch $110,000 on the streets, Dantos said.

Mejia, represented by attorney Charles Sieger, contended that he was a taxi driver in New York and was being paid to make the trip. He said he didn't know the purpose was to sell cocaine.

When they were arrested, Fermin and Tejada told police they were living in New Jersey.

None of the defendants has a criminal record.

Tejada was represented by attorney John Waldron. Fermin's attorney was John Baurkot.

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