Police seize $20M worth of cocaine in 'largest drug bust' in years, Nassau DA says

Police netted an estimated $20 million worth of cocaine from a pair of Florida men in what Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said was the largest drug bust she had seen in decades.

Michael Viera, 40, and Daniel Santana, 35, of DeLand, Florida, were charged with first-degree cocaine possession and third-degree drug possession, crimes that Donnelly said could rise to felonies as authorities continue to investigate.

Both pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said the bust was a result of solid police work.

On Jan. 28, officers with the narcotics vice squad were staking out the Plainview Holiday Inn on Sunnyside Boulevard, a location where they believed drug dealing was happening, when Viera and Santana arrived in a black pickup truck and made what officers believed was a drug sale, Ryder said.

When the buyer drove off, the officers approached the truck around 9 p.m. and saw what they believed were bricks of cocaine wrapped tightly in black plastic and tape, the commissioner said during a Tuesday morning news conference in police headquarters.

Stacks of similarly packaged cocaine, 312 kilograms in all, were packed in large suitcases in the back of the suspects' 2025 Dodge Ram, police said. The wrapped bricks of cocaine, which weighed 1 kilogram each, covered a 20-foot-long table in front of Ryder as he spoke, were seized by police.

"This is over $20 million of street value that was going to go out into the streets of Long Island and affect our kids," the commissioner said.

Authorities said they continue to investigate the drug haul, looking for more information on co-conspirators.

"We will be looking at upgrading these charges against these defendants, including the charge of operating as a major drug trafficker, which carries a potential life sentence," said Donnelly, who called the bust one of the largest drug seizures that she’s seen in her 35-year career as a prosecutor. "This investigation is ongoing, and we are going to do everything we can to find out where these drugs came from and where they were going."

The police commissioner said both men were originally from Puerto Rico and had previously been convicted of homicide, but he could not provide any details.

Viera made a short appearance in the felony screening part of district court on Tuesday, where his case was adjourned until March 3.

Viera's lawyer, Joseph LoPicolo, said his client does not have a homicide conviction in Puerto Rico.

"I honestly don't think they know how to read a rap sheet," he said.

The defense attorney also questioned some of the narrative surrounding the arrest.

"They claim that it was just fortuitous happenstance," he said of the bust. "They claim that they were there on unrelated investigation and they happened upon this large drug cache. We don’t believe this to be true."

He also cast doubt on the legality of the seizure.

"They claim that it was in plain view at night in the front seat of a tinted vehicle. We’ll have to see the body camera footage before we can come to any conclusions," he said. "We question if the police have sufficient information carry out this search."