Brown: Drug Operation Turned Long Island Expressway Into 'Heroin Highway'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- More than 120 men and women from Long Island have been arrested on drug charges, as police have targeted those shuttling between the suburbs and New York City to buy cheaper heroin to mix with prescription painkillers to snort, prosecutors said Friday.
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Detectives arrested a dozen suspected drug dealers running an operation mostly out of Ridgewood and Bushwick, on the Brooklyn-Queens border, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced on Friday.
Officials said the alleged dealers catered to customers --mostly ages 20 to 25 -- from Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
Brown said the alleged customers would call the dealers and then hop onto the Long Island Expressway to buy $400 worth of heroin -- which would've cost up to $1,500 on Long Island.
The ring "catered almost exclusively to drug buyers from the eastern end of Long Island, virtually turning the Long Island Expressway into the 'Heroin Highway','' Brown said.
New York Police Department Inspector Michael Bryan said the drugs were believed to have come from South America, and the users would buy a so-called "sleeve'' of heroin which is about 100 packets. He said the cheaper prices spread by word-of-mouth through the small towns.
In total, 121 suspected users were arrested during the past year. Many have been arraigned on drug charges and will go through drug treatment programs.
The suspected dealers were charged with drug dealing and other crimes.
