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Year on run ends when 'coke dealer' is seized in Bronx
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
One of Hudson County's most wanted fugitives has been tracked down and arrested by a bounty hunter in the Bronx after being on the lam since he skipped his arraignment in January 2006, officials said yesterday.
Rony Richardo Ventura, 23, of Madison Street in Guttenberg, was out on $150,000 bail after being busted with nearly a pound of suspected cocaine, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday.
"Mr. Ventura is allegedly a wholesale distributor of drugs and the apprehension of one of Hudson County's most wanted is appreciated," DeFazio said.
Ventura was arrested on Jan. 4, 2006 at 70th Street and Kennedy Boulevard in Guttenberg after selling 35 grams of cocaine to undercover officers, who then found 370 more grams and $900 in his apartment, DeFazio said.
"He's a good guy to get off the street," said Geoffrey Santini, a bounty hunter who spent a year following leads, paying informants, and working with the U.S. marshals and DeFazio's office in his hunt for Ventura.
After three days of surveillance, Santini spotted Ventura at a bodega on 233rd Street on Sunday, but a car pulled up with a woman in the back seat and Ventura jumped in, he said. He followed the car about three miles before it made a quick U-turn and doubled back to the Van Cortland Motel.
By the time Santini doubled back, Ventura was walking across the motel parking lot and the bounty hunter and his two associates tackled him, Santini said yesterday. It's a $15,000 payday for the bounty hunter.
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