2023 Bronx shopping center murder linked to massive cocaine debt, drug trafficking

Yahoo

06-02-2025

The brutal 2023 murder of a man shot dead in front of his wife at a Bronx shopping center was the deadly outcome of a cocaine-trafficking debt that spiraled violently out of control, federal prosecutors revealed Thursday.
Raymond Resto, 49, was ambushed in the parking lot of a Target store at the Throgs Neck Shopping Center as he and his wife were leaving their car to catch a waiting cab on Nov. 26, 2023, the Daily News previously reported.
A group of people pushed Resto's wife aside, blocked Resto's path and tried to force him into the BMW they pulled up in. When they were unsuccessful, they shot him in the head and chest before speeding off without saying a word, officials said.
Resto was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center shortly after the shooting.
Charged in the slaying are Ivan Collado, Arecio Collado, Patricia Villalba and Jerry Vargas, who federal prosecutors said were seeking repayment for a significant cocaine debt owed by one of Resto's drug-slinging associates.
Villalba, Arecio Collado and Vargas were indicted Thursday on numerous charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, cyberstalking resulting in death, narcotics conspiracy and weapons possession.
Ivan Collado, who was arrested in February 2024, faces the same charges, along with additional accusations of making false statements. He has been held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest, records show.
According to federal prosecutors, from November 2023 to February 2024, Ivan and Arecio Collado and Villalba were involved in a drug conspiracy, distributing large quantities of cocaine across the city and elsewhere.
The Collados and Villalba supplied a drug-dealing associate of Resto's with kilograms of cocaine. But when the associate failed to repay the drug debt, the suppliers turned their focus on Resto, seeking retribution for the unpaid money, prosecutors charge.
The accused drug dealers, along with Vargas, plotted to locate and murder Resto over the cocaine debt, going as far as installing a GPS tracking device on his car to pinpoint his location. After months of intimidation, the dealers followed the victim and his wife to the shopping center, where they ambushed him.
'As alleged, these defendants carried out a sophisticated and brazen scheme to stalk, kidnap and kill Raymond Resto over a drug debt,' U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said in a statement. 'They murdered Resto in front of his wife in the parking lot of the Throgs Neck Shopping Center in the Bronx.'
Resto's criminal history dated back to 1991, when he was arrested for robbery. In 2019, Resto was also charged in a federal conspiracy drug case.
After the slaying, Resto's sister told The News that he was a devoted father: 'He was all of that,' she said at their mother's Harlem apartment. 'A good person and a giving person.'
If convicted, Villalba, the Collados and Vargas could spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
As it continues to investigate, the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York urges anyone with more information on the drug traffickers to come forward.