'Cab Louie' Drug Delivery Founder Gets Prison After OD Deaths

YONKERS, NY — The founder of a Westchester County illicit drug delivery service, known as "Cab Louie," has been sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison for causing three overdose deaths.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Jose Luis Tejada Aybar was sentenced on Tuesday to 150 months in prison for operating the Cab Louie Delivery Service, an on-demand drug courier service that delivered fentanyl-tainted cocaine to customers in September 2019.

The deadly mix caused the overdose deaths of Marsha Clarke of the Bronx as well as Martin Banks and Edward Lynch of Yonkers. Clarke’s husband was also hospitalized.

Tejada Aybar was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. Co-defendants Allen Alexis Abisada Guzman and Martin Perez were previously sentenced to 98 months and 70 months in prison, respectively.

See Also: Yonkers Man Arrested In Connection With String Of Overdoses: Feds

"The sentencing of Jose Luis Tejada Aybar marks a crucial step in bringing justice to the victims not only of the Cab Louie Delivery Service but also those victims of fentanyl and other lethal drugs," Williams said. "The devastating consequences of Tejada’s operation underscore the importance of dismantling criminal enterprises like this, and this prosecution reaffirms our unwavering commitment to combating organized crime and protecting our communities from the dangers of drug trafficking."

In March 2018, Tejada Aybar started the Cab Louie Delivery Service, which delivered cocaine to customers in the Bronx and Westchester County. Customers would call or text one of the business’s rotating dispatch lines to place an order, and the Cab Louie Delivery Service would send a driver to deliver cocaine to the customer. During its operation from March 2018 to September 2021, the Cab Louie Delivery Service sold, in total, more than 15 kilograms of cocaine — equivalent to nearly 24,000 bags of cocaine.

As his business expanded, Tejada Aybar hired employees for the Cab Louie Delivery Service. In addition to hiring employees, he led the Cab Louie Delivery Service by sourcing its cocaine, obtaining and operating the dispatch phones, and providing one delivery driver with a car to deliver cocaine.

On September 19, 2019, Abisada Guzman delivered cocaine on behalf of the Cab Louie Delivery Service to three different customers: Clarke, Banks, and Lynch. The cocaine was tainted with fentanyl. Within two days, Clarke, Banks, and Lynch were found dead, and Clarke’s husband was found unresponsive. Medical examiners determined that Clarke, Banks, and Lynch all died from acute intoxication by the combined effects of cocaine and fentanyl, among other drugs. Clarke’s husband was hospitalized for a fentanyl overdose and was in a coma for some time. When he emerged from the coma, Clarke’s husband had to relearn how to speak, how to feed himself, how to use the restroom, and how to walk.

Despite learning of the overdose deaths of Banks and Lynch through a local news article, which he saved on his phone, Tejada Aybar continued operating the Cab Louie Delivery Service. Between November 6, 2019, and February 13, 2020, an NYPD undercover officer made six controlled purchases of cocaine from the Cab Louie Delivery Service. Tejada personally made two of the deliveries, Abisada Guzman made three, and Perez made one.

In addition to the prison term, Tejada Aybar, 41, of Miami, Florida, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Williams praised the investigative work of the NYPD, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force ("OCDETF") New York Strike Force, and the Complex Analytical and Social Media Enhancement Team at the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Williams also thanked the Yonkers Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for their assistance in the case.