2 Downtown LA residents charged in operation that shipped more than $315 million of cocaine to New York

Two downtown Los Angeles residents were among five people arrested Tuesday, Sept. 16, on suspicion of participating in a drug-trafficking organization that shipped more than $315 million worth of cocaine between L.A. and New York, federal officials announced.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice allege the drug trafficking organization of working out of a space fronting as a jewelry store in the California Jewelry Mart, where they shipped locked Pelican cases of cocaine to New York City’s Diamond District to be distributed along the East Coast.

Nohely Jimenez-Ruiz, 30, and Lorna Martinez, 42, both of downtown Los Angeles, were among the defendants arrested along with Jamel Donald Levy, 52, of Brooklyn; Bruce Adams, 50, of Bronx and Cindy Rachel Imbert, 33, of Englewood, New Je