GWB Closed, 6 Arrested In Heroin Raid
NEW YORK (WCBS 880/AP) -- It's not unusual to hear that the Cross Bronx Expressway and the George Washington Bridge have been closed, but the circumstances surrounding Wednesday's closure were certainly out of the ordinary.
New York authorities say six people were arrested and more than $1 million worth of heroin was seized in a nighttime raid that briefly closed the George Washington Bridge.
Authorities say suspects threw two handguns and thousands of heroin baggies onto the Cross Bronx Expressway during a raid on a Washington Heights apartment. The bridge and the highway were closed for the clean-up.
Both the bridge and the expressway had to be shut down by the police Wednesday night following a raid on a suspected heroin mill, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reports.
Authorities were forced to close the expressway and the nearby GW bridge to collect the weapons and envelopes, which were stamped with names like ``Star Bucks,'' ``Target'' and ``High End.''
Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennen described a wild scene in which police tried to batter down a door to a spot they knew was milling heroin glassine.
"All of a sudden out the window came two guns followed very quickly by one of the defendants, one of the targets of the investigation, who crawled out the window and was dangling from the 18th floor balcony directly overheard," Brennen told Cornell.
However, Brennen said that when the suspect spotted cops, he scrambled back onto the balcony. No one was injured in the incident.
The defendants were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, conspiracy to possess and sell a controlled substance, and criminally using drug paraphernalia.
