DEA arrest cuts supply of crack cocaine in Hialeah

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have arrested a resident of Miramar, in Broward County, who sold significant amounts of cocaine to a drug dealer in Hialeah, according to documents in Miami federal court.

José Alarcón, 27, was arrested March 25 after an undercover DEA agent identified him as the supplier of the crack cocaine dealer in Hialeah, a criminal complaint says.

It was just the latest DEA drug bust in South Florida. On Feb. 18, DEA agents arrested a Texas woman after she tried to buy significant amounts of cocaine from an undercover agent during a meeting at a restaurant near Miami International Airport.

The case involving Alarcón began in late March 2014 when a confidential source told investigators about a crack cocaine dealer operating in Hialeah.

A month later, the source introduced the undercover agent to the dealer. Eventually the dealer became a source who revealed to the undercover agent that his supplier was a man who lived in Miramar.

That turned out to be Alarcón, according to the complaint.

The Hialeah dealer, who by then was already cooperating with the undercover agent, helped identify Alarcón when he turned up one day at the Hialeah home where the drug was being sold, the complaint said.

The Hialeah dealer fingered Alarcón when the dealer walked up to a black Jeep Cherokee parked in front of the house. The dealer later told the agent that the driver was the supplier and that he was known as “Chico,” according to the complaint. The informant also revealed that Chico delivered the cocaine base and that the Hialeah dealer cooked it into crack. Chico had delivered the base to the Hialeah dealer for about a year at a rate of three to four ounces per week.

From that moment on, Alarcón was kept under surveillance by investigators.

“As Alarcón drove away,” the complaint said, “a uniformed Hialeah Police Department officer in a marked vehicle conducted a traffic stop a short distance away and positively identified the driver as Alarcón.”

Investigators learned through the driver license that Alarcón lived along the 1700 block of Southwest 96^th Avenue in Miramar, the complaint said.

Alarcón was indicted April 9 and arraigned last week and is now awaiting trial.

The DEA complaint did not say if investigators were trying to find out if there were other people involved in the cocaine supply chain.

DEA expressed satisfaction about the case and thanked various police departments for their assistance including those in Hialeah, Davie, North Bay Village and Sunny Isles.

“Mr. Alarcon was arrested as a result of a two-year investigation into a crack cocaine trafficking organization operating out of the south Florida area,” said DEA Miami Field Division, Acting Special Agent in Charge A.D. Wright. “His arrest culminates yet another successful joint investigation with our local counterparts.”

Alarcon’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

This story was originally published April 18, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "DEA arrest cuts supply of crack cocaine in Hialeah."