ICYMI: 20 Pounds Of Opioids Seized From Central Park West Apartment, Feds Say

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — About 20 pounds of heroin and fentanyl were seized after federal, state and city law enforcement agencies raided an Central Park West apartment doubling as a drug mill, the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor announced Monday.

Four men are facing charges for operating a heroin and fentanyl packaging operation out of the apartment following the sting led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s, NYPD, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the New York State Police.

On Friday law enforcement officers were conducting surveillance on 448 Central Park west — located across from Central Park near West 105th Street — when they observed a man exit the building carrying two boxes and enter an Uber car, officials told Patch.

Federal agents followed the vehicle and stopped it near 121st Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem, officials said. During the stop, agents saw that one of the boxes was open and detected a tan powdery substance, officials told Patch. Agents seized the contents of the packages — approximately six kilograms (13 pounds) of a heroin and fentanyl mix — and placed the Uber driver, 42-year-old Richard Rodriguez and the passenger, 32-year-old David Rodriguez, under arrest.

A few hours later agents confronted two men, 19-year-old Jesus Perez-Cabral and 32-year-old Johnny Beltrez outside of 448 Central Park West, officials said. Perez-Cabral told agents that he lived in a sixth-floor apartment and admitted to having guns and drugs in the apartment, officials told Patch.

After obtaining a search warrant for the apartment agents discovered:

• Two large ziplock bags containing approximately three kilograms (six pounds) of a suspected fentanyl and heroin combination;
• 1,100 individual dose glassine envelopes that had been filled with powder and stamped with the brand name “UBER;”
• A loaded .25 caliber Beretta pistol;
• $30,000 in cash;
• Identification cards, multiple cellphones and ledgers;
• Supplies and paraphernalia consistent with a heroin/fentanyl packaging mill such as stamps, rubber bands, folding tables, boxes of ziplock bags, a heat sealing device, gloves, masks and empty glassines branded “Panda,” “Black Friday” and “Wild Card.”

"The volume of heroin and highly potent fentanyl entering New York City is staggering, but so is the amount being removed from the streets as a result of successful collaborations between law enforcement partners," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement. "In this case millions of dollars in suspected heroin and fentanyl was seized just steps from Central Park, a top destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike."

The estimated street value of the seized drugs is $3 million, officials told Patch. Depending on the potency and fentanyl compared to heroin mix the value could be greater, officials said. Perez-Cabral, Beltrez, David Rodriguez and Richard Rodriguez were arraigned on Saturday, officials told Patch. All four men have been hit with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance as well as second-degree conspiracy charges, officials said. Perez-Cabral is facing an additional charge of criminal possession of a firearm, officials told Patch.
Perez-Cabral is being held at $100,000 bail, David Rodriguez is being held at $200,000 bail, Beltrez is being held at $10,000 bail and Richard Rodriguez is being held at $1,000 bail, officials told Patch.
Fentanyl, an opioid, is about 50 times stronger than heroin, officials told Patch. The recent increased street usage of fentanyl in New York City accounted for a 46 percent increase in city overdose deaths from 2015 to 2016, officials said. In 2016, 1,374 people died of drug overdoses in New York City, officials told Patch. "Fentanyl is the deadliest street drug to ever hit this country. This seizure alone contains enough potency to kill half of the population of New York City, if laboratory analysis proves it is all fentanyl," DEA Special Agent James J. Hunt said in a statement, "Fentanyl is manufactured death that drug dealers are mixing with heroin. I commend the brave men and women in law enforcement who are risking their lives tracking down this toxin before it contributes to more fatal overdoses."
Photo courtesy New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor
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