Florida Man Charged with Trafficking Thousands of Kilograms of Cocaine from Puerto Rico to John F. Kennedy Airport and Long Island

An indictment was unsealed yesterday in federal court in Central Islip charging Omar Morales-Negron, also known as "O," with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Morales Negron was arrested on July 14, 2026 in Florida and will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Pete Gizas, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, New York (HSI New York); Frank A Tarentino III, Associate Chief of Operations, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Northeast Region (DEA); and James C. Barnacle, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the arrest and indictment.

"As alleged, the defendant coordinated the shipments of massive amounts of cocaine into our Long Island community," stated United States Attorney Nocella. "For years Morales-Negron profited from his international trafficking and taking advantage of end users who are addicted to his drugs. These charges will hold him accountable for the harm he has wrought."

"By concealing cocaine inside furniture and shipments disguised as electronic parts, Omar Morales-Negron deliberately attempted to evade law enforcement while fueling addiction and violence throughout Long Island and our region" stated DEA Northeast Associate Chief of Operations Tarentino. "As alleged, Morales-Negron operated a sophisticated drug trafficking organization responsible for moving thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico into New York. The seizure of more than 465 kilograms of cocaine, coupled with investigative findings indicating the distribution of more than $100 million worth of cocaine on Long Island, underscores the immense scale of this operation. Thanks to the hard work of the DEA, our prosecutors, and our law enforcement partners, Morales-Negron is now in New York to answer for the harm he inflicted on the very communities he sought to poison."

"Omar Morales-Negron allegedly trafficked large quantities of cocaine right into our backyard. Drug trafficking tears at our communities, fueling violence, addiction, and instability. The FBI, with its partners, continues to disrupt these operations to protect our neighborhoods," stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Barnacle.

From 2019 through the present, the defendant coordinated large scale shipments and distribution of narcotics from Puerto Rico to Long Island utilizing, among other methods, freight shipping routes. The defendant's drug trafficking organization (DTO) shipped narcotics, which were secreted inside furniture, by ocean freight from Puerto Rico to the continental United States. Once the narcotics arrived in the United States, DTO members loaded the furniture containing narcotics onto trucks and transported them to warehouses in New York, including locations in the Eastern District of New York for distribution.

The defendant also orchestrated the surreptitious shipment of narcotics through the United Parcel Service. All the suspected narcotics-filled shipments weighed approximately the same amount and were labeled as electronics parts sent from a fictious corporation in Puerto Rico ("Company-1") to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK Airport). Once the purported electronics parts arrived at the JFK Airport, other members of the DTO picked up the shipments for further distribution within the United States.

To date, law enforcement has intercepted some of the narcotics trafficked by the defendant's DTO including:

• The January 29, 2026, seizure of 312 kilograms of cocaine (valued at $20 million) from two of Morales-Negron's subordinates. The cocaine was shipped from Company-1 in Puerto Rico, arrived at JFK Airport and was picked up on the same day by a member of the DTO. The DTO member who picked up the shipment arrived driving a U-Haul truck. Later that day, Nassau County Police Detectives observed two individuals in a Plainview, New York hotel parking lot conduct a hand-to-hand narcotics exchange. Police approached the two individuals and observed numerous open suitcases which appeared to contain kilograms of cocaine (some of which is pictured below):
• The July 3, 2026, seizure of 153 kilograms of cocaine (valued at $10 million) from a shipment container seized in Queens, New York (some of which is pictured below):

During the investigation, ledgers detailing Morales-Negron's large scale and highly profitable narcotics business were recovered allowing law enforcement to determine that his narcotics operation was responsible for the distribution of more than $100 million of cocaine on Long Island.

The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted of the charges, Morales-Negron faces up to life in prison.

The government's case is being handled by the Criminal Section of the Office's Long Island Division. Assistant United States Attorney Mark E. Misorek and Special Assistant United States Attorney James P. Scahill are in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of the Eastern District of New York's Criminal Investigation Unit and Paralegal Specialist Dejah Turla.

This prosecution is also part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of U.S. law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

The Defendant:

OMAR MORALES-NEGRON
Age: 36
Orange City, Florida

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 26-CR-207 (SJB)