Fairfax County police have charged a Chantilly woman with distribution of cocaine. She is Alicia Q. Stefanopoulo, 61, of 13298 Leafcrest Lane, Apt. 202-A, in the Shenandoah Crossing community.
An undercover detective explained the case against her in an April 6 affidavit for a search warrant to look for possible evidence in her home.
He wrote that, in March, he developed a "confidential and reliable informant" who admitted to distributing illegal/controlled substances in the past and made statements against his/her own penal interests.
"The [informant] advised [me] that an individual named Alicia is a current supplier of cocaine in Fairfax County," he wrote. The informant also said that "he/she has purchased cocaine from Alicia approximately seven times — totaling about 2 1/2 kilograms."
According to Capt. Dave Vice, commander of the police department's Organized Crime and Narcotics Division, a kilo of cocaine weighs 2.2 pounds and usually sells in Northern Virginia for $23,000-$28,000/kilo.
However, he added, it's often broken into grams for sale. In that case, he said, one gram of cocaine would sell for about $80. Since there are 1,000 grams in a kilogram, one kilo of cocaine would then have a street value of about $80,000.
IN THE AFFIDAVIT, he stated the informant told him that, "on April 5, Alicia would be coming to Fairfax County in the afternoon to deliver at least one kilogram of cocaine for him/her to sell. The [informant] also identified one of the vehicles that Alicia drives in the New York City area where she primarily lives."
The detective then obtained its license-plate number and, through this information and other computer checks, he was reportedly able to identify Alicia as Alicia Stefanopoulo of the Leafcrest Lane address.
Last Tuesday, April 5, the detective did surveillance and discovered the vehicle — a black BMW — at Leafcrest Lane in the afternoon, as the informant had predicted. The next day, he arranged for a controlled purchase of cocaine from Stefanopoulo. The deal was set to take place in the parking lot of a Chantilly grocery store.
The detective then allegedly told the informant to go there and call Stefanopoulo when he/she arrived. When the informant did so, wrote the detective, he/she was then allegedly advised by Stefanopoulo that he/she would have to go to another location to pick up the kilo from another party who reportedly had it in his truck.
According to the detective, police surveillance units watched Stefanopoulo leave her Chantilly apartment, drive her BMW to meet with the man with the truck, speak with him and receive "a blue bag through the passenger window." He wrote that she then allegedly drove to the grocery-store parking lot, met the informant and placed the blue bag inside his/her vehicle.
She then left and drove back to her apartment. Afterward, the informant reportedly gave the detective a bag "that appeared to contain a kilogram of cocaine. A field test of the substance reacted positive for the presence of cocaine ... The [informant] advised [me] that ... Alicia Stefanopoulo is the subject who gave him /her the package."
Police executed the search warrant last Wednesday, April 6, at her Chantilly home and seized various records and documents, as well as a wallet containing identification. They arrested Stefanopoulo, April 7, charging her with distribution of cocaine. She's being held without bond at the Adult Detention Center and has a June 6 court date.