Reputed North Philly drug kingpin, family indicted

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 alleged 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, and 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 multiblock 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 shoot-out 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 hit man to shoot a drug rival.

The unnamed hit man 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 upon which the case has been built.

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

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 forfeiture. 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 also seeks 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 cockfighting, 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 2008 BBC documentary, Law and Disorder in Philadelphia.

In an on-camera interview, Rivera 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 7-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 going to lie to you. For family. Problems. Sometimes, you do what you got to do to survive."

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