Large-scale fentanyl packaging operation busted in the Bronx, authorities say
NEW YORK - There's been another major fentanyl takedown in the Bronx.
Nearly 400,000 packets of suspected fentanyl and heroin, worth about $4 million on the street, were seized in a raid on a Bronx apartment located at Grand Concourse near 169th Street, according to authorities. Eleven people were arrested. The charges include criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminally using drug paraphernalia. They're due in court Monday.
The raid took place Wednesday and involved a task force made up of DEA, NYPD, and New York State Police personnel. Authorities said they had the location under surveillance for a month. At the time of the raid, four of the suspects were found hiding underneath solar panels on the roof.
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Authorities said they found "bags of cutting agents, a box filled with coffee grinders containing a white powdery substance, multiple scales, and stamps used for branding."
"This investigation highlights potential dangers from a fentanyl/heroin packaging mill operating in a residential building. Not only is exposure to lethal drugs a risk to innocent residents when a half million small packages of lethal drugs are bagged in a neighboring apartment, but their security may be compromised as well," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
"Eleven members of a fentanyl/heroin trafficking ring were arrested as they fled the scene of a crime. They all ran from an active fentanyl mill filled with hundreds of thousands of deadly doses, but they couldn't hide, not even under solar panels on the roof," DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said.
"By systematically targeting heroin and fentanyl supply sources like this one in the Bronx, the NYPD and our law enforcement partners are fulfilling our mission to save lives. Dismantling this operation and preventing these deadly drugs from reaching the streets and neighborhoods of New York is our latest success in advancing that mission," NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.
"Fentanyl and heroin continue to flood the Bronx, as evidenced by the large supply found in an apartment, packaged and ready to be sold to thousands of drug users," Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said.
The arrests are just the latest in a crackdown that was triggered by the death of a 1-year-old due to fentanyl exposure at a Bronx day-care.