Prosecutors said the drugs seized from 2300 Olinville Avenue, a residential building located across from P.S. 96, The Richard Rogers School in Allerton, were estimated to carry a street value of over $2 million, and the indictment was filed by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (OSNP) in Manhattan Supreme Court.

 

 

She continued, “Those who lived in the 20-story apartment building where this organization was based had no warning of the risks they were exposed to, even as 17 large packages of potentially deadly substances were hurled out of a window. I commend the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) and my office’s Special Investigations Bureau and Investigators Unit for saving lives by dismantling this operation.”

For her part, Clark said it was deeply concerning that an illegal narcotics packaging mill operated across the street from a public school, involving fentanyl and xylazine, two highly toxic drugs, and cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. “Thirteen pounds of these substances were recovered, and I thank our local, state, and federal partners for intercepting these drugs that continue to ravage our communities,” she said. ‘Xylazine was involved in more than a quarter of fatal overdoses in the city in 2023; opioid overdose reversal drugs are not effective on it, making it even more dangerous.”

 

Prosecutors said that during a short-term investigation, members of NYDETF Group T-21, which comprises agents and officers from DEA New York division, the NYPD, and the New York State Police, with assistance from SNP’s investigators unit, conducted physical and electronic surveillance at 2300 Olinville Avenue and identified a suspected drug packaging location within Apartment 9A.

 

They said several people, including Martinez, Rivera, and Pichardo, were observed coming and going from the apartment, sometimes carrying bags. They said Martinez is alleged to have ran the mill and was the target of the investigation.

 

The court heard that on Nov. 6, at around 9.45 p.m., members of NYDETF Group T-21 arrived at 2300 Olinville Avenue, Apartment 9A, to conduct a court-authorized search. As agents and officers worked to open the apartment door, which was secured by multiple deadbolt locks, an NYPD detective assigned to NYDETF was stationed outside the residential building and observed bags of what appeared to be drugs being tossed from a 9th floor window.

 

Prosecutors said that around 10 individual bags containing narcotics and other substances were recovered from the ground outside the location, and another seven bags were found on neighboring balconies underneath the window on the 7th and 8th floors. They said subsequent DEA laboratory analysis determined the bags contained various mixtures and quantities of fentanyl, heroin, xylazine, methamphetamine and cocaine, as well as other substances.

 

The court heard that when agents and officers entered the apartment, Rivera was allegedly near the front door and Martinez and Pichardo were allegedly in a back bedroom that contained the window from which the drugs were tossed. During the search of this bedroom and another bedroom in the apartment, agents and officers allegedly recovered around 17 large bags of suspected drugs. Prosecutors said DEA laboratory analysis later determined these bags also contained various mixtures of fentanyl, heroin, xylazine, and methamphetamine.

They said a bag containing over three pounds of xylazine mixed with caffeine were also found, and agents and officers recovered tens of thousands of individual dose glassine envelopes filled with mixtures of fentanyl, heroin and xylazine.

 

Brennan thanked Clark, and commended SNP’s special investigations bureau and investigators unit, DEA New York Division, the NYDETF, the NYPD, and the New York State Police for their work on the investigation.