Bronx pizza parlor delivering calzones - and cocaine, say Feds

BY Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Bronx pizza parlor was raided for delivering drugs.
"I'll have a large pie, half-pepperoni, half-cocaine."
A Bronx pizza parlor that delivered drugs as well as calzones was busted and six people - including the store's manager - were arrested, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said Wednesday.
Investigators charged that John's Pizza on Westchester Ave. employed its delivery men as drug couriers and used the supply of cocaine inside the pizzeria to ferry narcotics shipments throughout the city.
"Using their pizza shop as a front for drug trafficking, the dough that this organization made was not from the sale of pizza but rather illegal narcotics," said DEA Special Agent-In-Charge John Gilbride.
"Through concentrated law enforcement efforts this organization's brick ovens have been shut down," Gilbride said.
Federal agents used a wiretap to conduct a 10-month probe into the Parkchester pizzeria and determined that its manager, Benigno Burgos, moved drugs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the unassuming storefront with a red-and-green awning.
Some customers traveled from as far as Connecticut to pick up their take-out orders - which were actually pizza boxes stuffed with up to $40,000 of cocaine at a time, officials said.
Agents raided John's and four nearby drug supply houses Tuesday and discovered nine kilograms of cocaine, four handguns and approximately $20,000 in cash, officials said.
At Burgos' home on Taylor Ave., investigators found nine kilograms of cocaine hidden under a child's mattress, officials said.
Burgos and Victor Gomez, his alleged partner in the scheme, were nabbed along with four drug couriers, officials said. Three of the drug ring's customers were arrested last year, officials said.
Investigators from the NYPD, Port Authority and Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office assisted in the takedown, officials said.