Feds charge 13 in probe of violent N. Phila. drug ring

It was, by law enforcement accounts, a family affair.

Reputed North Philadelphia drug kingpin Alexander "Reds" Rivera, described in a government memo as "the violent leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organization," was indicted Wednesday along with his wife, his mother-in-law and 10 associates for drug trafficking.

The 27-count indictment capped a lengthy investigation by the FBI's Violent Gang Task Force and the Philadelphia Police Department into a drug operation allegedly run by Rivera, 28, in a troubled Kensington neighborhood.

Both Rivera's wife, Ileana Vidal, 24, his mother-in-law, Ida Cardona, 52, were charged with packaging, storing and selling cocaine, heroin and PCP.

Authorities allege the Rivera network "distributed massive quantities of (drugs) ... in a multi-block area of the Kensington neighborhood" beginning in February 2006.

Rivera "owned or controlled the drug sales ... in and around the intersection of Indiana Avenue and Lawrence Street," according to the indictment, and used his wife and mother-in-law "to assist him in the operation."

The indictment also alleges that Rivera shot an unnamed "innocent bystander" during a shootout with a rival drug dealer in September 2006.

It also charged that in August 2007 Rivera associate, Daniel Cortez, 28, kidnapped and tortured a man who owed Rivera money.

And it alleged that in December 2009 Rivera and Cesar Burgos, 29, another codefendant, hired a hitman to shoot a drug rival.

The unnamed hitman was one of at least a dozen individuals cited in the indictment who have apparently testified before a federal jury.

That testimony, along with secretly recorded and wiretapped conversations, law enforcement surveillance and controlled drug buys provide the evidence around which the case has been built.

Rivera was described as a "dangerous drug dealer with access to multiple firearms" in a prosecution memo that supported a government argument that he be denied bail after his arrest on Sept. 7.

Authorities staged a series of raids on several locations in Kensington that day where they alleged Rivera stashed drugs and weapons.

The indictment lists eight properties, including Rivera's home in the 3400 block of North F Street and two garages there, as targets for forfeitures. Those and the other locations were allegedly used as stash houses where drugs were stored and packaged and from which they were sometimes sold.

The government is also seeking the seizure of four vehicles, including a Cadillac Escalade and a Mercedes Benz.

During the raids in September investigators seized drugs, an assault rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and eight handguns.

Rivera, short and stocky with tattooed arms and bushy red hair and a beard, was once cited by the SPCA, according to his lawyer, for maintaining an unlicensed "petting zoo" in a stable-like garage in his neighborhood.

At the time of the raids in September, authorities said there were roosters that appeared to be trained for cock fighting and horses in the garage. The building also served as a stash house for drugs, they said.

"He is not a zookeeper," quipped one investigator.

Rivera was one of several reputed drug dealers featured in a BBC documentary in 2008 entitled "Law and Disorder in Philadelphia."

In an on-camera interview, he denied that he was involved in drugs and said he made money selling real estate and cars.

"We not doing nothing bad, man," he said as he stood on a corner with his seven-year-old daughter.

He said he never shot anyone, but had been involved in fights.

"We always beat people up," he said. "I'm not gonna lie to you. For family. Problems. Sometimes you do what you gotta do to survive."

But he said he planned to leave the neighborhood and told BBC reporter Louis Theroux, "There's gonna be worser people than me ... and there's gonna be more problems ... Everybody wanna do whatever ... anything what anybody wanna do. And that's when chaos comes. Somebody gotta have control of something."