In the latest of a series of major DEA drug busts across New York City, federal agents busted a heroin and fentanyl mill in an Upper West Side apartment close to Central Park.
Major drug bust near Central Park, NYC
According to a report by NBC New York, the latest DEA bust uncovered some 20 pounds of heroin and fentanyl, with a street value of around $3 million. They also uncovered 1,100 envelopes which had been labeled with various drug names, including “Time Bomb,” “Walking Dead,” “Animal Planet,” “Uber” and “Uber Black.” According to the DEA, the bust also led to the arrest of four Manhattan men, Richard Rodriguez, 42, David Rodriguez, 32, Jesus Perez-Cabral, 19 and Johnny Beltrez, 32.
A joint NYPD and DEA task force had been watching the apartment on Central Park West when they spotted David Rodriguez loading shopping bags into a Honda Accord vehicle. That vehicle is driven by an Uber driver, Richard Rodriguez. Officers followed and then stopped the Honda, finding Rodriguez in the back seat of the car with an open box with cylinders of powder. They then arrested the two men, who are reportedly not related.
Apartment search yields more drugs
They then went on to raid the apartment on the sixth floor of the building where the heroin and fentanyl were uncovered, along with a loaded gun, $30,000 cash and the various packaging materials. Authorities then arrested Perez-Cabral and Beltrez at the scene.
James Hunt, the DEA Special Agent in Charge, called fentanyl the deadliest drug to ever hit the streets of the country. According to Hunt, if their analysis is confirmed, the latest seizure had the potential of killing half of New York City’s population. Drug dealers reportedly save money by cutting heroin with the deadly fentanyl, which is cheaper to manufacture but can be 50 times more powerful than pure heroin.
As reported by the New York Daily News, a heroin mill in the Bronx was busted on Wednesday, where the suspects were putting together 18 kilos of heroin. Last week the DEA busted a Colorado man close to a hotel in the Bronx with 40 pounds of fentanyl.
Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said of the cases that the volume of heroin and fentanyl arriving in the city is “staggering,” but that the amount currently being removed from New York’s streets is almost equally high. She praised the successful collaboration between the NYPD and the DEA leading to the arrests of those persons responsible.
