The Bronx District Attorney’s Office indicted 16 men and two women–with at least two suspects connected to Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights–on charges of dealing heroin and enough fentanyl to “kill the population of New York” in the South Bronx following a drug seizure on May 28 worth $7 million. The arrests come as portions of the Bronx continue to grapple with a deadly heroin epidemic.

Those charged have ties to the world’s most powerful drug organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly headed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán until his arrest. Fifty pounds (23 kilos) of fentanyl, a semi-automatic rifle, and 189 rounds of ammunition were recovered from an undisclosed location in the borough during the takedown.

The charges follow a 20-month joint investigation by the Bronx DA, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Homeland Security Investigation and local and state authorities, and involved the dismantling of traffickers who law enforcement say flooded the Bronx with fentanyl and heroin from Mexico via networks in California, Chicago and the Dominican Republic.

The defendants were part of two different groups of 11 members that trafficked several kilograms of fentanyl and heroin monthly and sold it in bulk to distributors in the Bronx, Philadelphia, Albany and other cities. The drugs wound up on the streets in ten-dollar packets.

Ray Donovan, DEA Special Agent in Charge, said, “Through this investigation, we have saved lives.”  Donovan said the amount of fentanyl was enough to “kill the population of New York City.”

Carlos Miguel De Leon, 28, of Walton Avenue in Mott Haven, and Kelvin De Leon, who has since passed away, distributed their narcotics to University Heights, Kingsbridge Heights and Concourse neighborhoods. They also supplied co-defendant, Carlos Vazquez, 66, of Old White Plains Road in Wakefield with heroin mixed with fentanyl for re-sale. Vazquez distributed much of his drugs close to the McKinley and Forest Houses.

According to Bronx District Attorney, Darcel D. Clark, the investigation began with a probe into dealing in the McKinley Houses when defendant, Charlie Rodriguez, 45, of East 163rd Street in Mott Haven, allegedly headed up a group that sold glassines of heroin marked “PAID”, and glassines of heroin and fentanyl mixed and stamped “PRICED”.

On Jan. 6 De Leon died of acute heroin intoxication in his home where it is believed he stored narcotics. According to the investigation, both Vazquez and a co-defendant, Felipe Marquez, 60, of E. 165th St. in Highbridge, attended drug treatment programs, and may have used them to cultivate vulnerable people as heroin customers or re-sellers.

Drug-related incidents account for the deaths of 20 Bronxites per month according to Clark, who also said the Bronx has the highest percentage of drug overdoses in the city.  “As with any fentanyl dealer investigation, we will investigate whether there are connections between several fentanyl overdose deaths in the Bronx and with this case,” she said.

Norwood News asked if this implied that the 22 defendants could potentially be charged with additional crimes such as manslaughter or murder charges as a result of those overdose deaths. A representative of the DA’s office said, “Some of them could be.”

Four additional residents of upstate New York, California, Pennsylvania and Mexico respectively were also charged, two with charges of Operating as a Major Trafficker, which carries a minimum sentence of 15-25 years and a maximum of life in prison, if convicted.

Clark said, “In this investigation, we were able to go beyond the dealer selling glassines in the McKinley Houses, beyond his supplier, beyond the major distributor, all the way to the Mexican national we tracked around the U.S. allegedly making deals and arranging deliveries.”

According to the investigation, another defendant, Roberto Gonzalez Franco, is a Mexican national with a B-1 Visa border crossing card restricting his travel to 75 miles from the border.

Gonzalez Franco crossed the border approximately 15 times from Sept. 2018 to early Feb. 2019 and held meetings with defendants in the Bronx, Chicago and Philadelphia.

His movements were tracked through Homeland Security intelligence. “Through access to various databases of travel, we are able to determine somebody’s immigration status, visa status and ability in terms of what their limitations are vis-à-vis visa,” a Homeland Security Administration representative said. “So we were basically able to identify the limitations on anybody’s ability to be in the U.S. or to travel to the U.S. or things of that nature.”

Clark confirmed that the DA’s office received assistance from NYCHA on the investigation.

Homeland Security agents were asked if any of the 22 defendants would be turned over to ICE and said they were not sure and that it would not depend on them, but on the cooperation with the local prosecution if those indicted are turned over or not. 

Just 17 of the 22 people indicted have been arrested so far. On the remaining five, Clark said, “They’re being sought. We’re looking for them.” The DA’s office was unable to provide further details as to any leads, or their whereabouts, due to the ongoing investigation.

Donovan summed up the case describing it as a bird’s eye view of how the Sinaloa Cartel supplies local distribution networks that are fueling the opioid crisis. Donovan said the cartel controls the majority of the distribution of the holistic drug market in the U.S. and is expanding its capacity to produce fentanyl and traffic it into the country.

In the last six months alone, he said the DEA has taken down, along with its Mexican partners, ten full production fentanyl labs capable of producing thousands of kilograms of fentanyl bound for New York City.

“Today’s fentanyl is being mixed with heroin, cocaine, meth and fentanyl, as well as marijuana. Today’s fentanyl is deadly and it is real,”he said. “Our law enforcement partners here are committed to pursuing these criminal networks that put greed over human lives.”