Up to 400,000 packages of suspected fentanyl/heroin, plus quantities of loose powdered narcotics, carrying an estimated street value of $4 million were recovered by law enforcement on Wednesday, Nov. 1, during the disruption of an active drug packaging mill operation in the Concourse section of The Bronx. The seizure was part of an ongoing investigation into fentanyl trafficking in New York City, federal, state and local law enforcement officials said.

 

Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP), Frank A. Tarentino III, special agent in charge of the New York division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA), New York City Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban, acting State Police Superintendent Dominick L. Chiumento, and Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced the arrest and indictment of 11 people in connection with the high-volume drug mill, located at 1244 Grand Concourse, Apartment 2B, located northeast of the Concourse section of The Bronx.

According to the prosecution, an indictment filed by the Office of the SNP charges the 11 individuals with multiple counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree. Arraignments are scheduled for Monday, Nov. 6, before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Miriam Best.

 

According to the investigation, members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-22 and SNP investigators identified 1244 Grand Concourse, Apartment 2B as a suspected packaging mill location. Officials said agents and officers dismantled the large-scale operation on Wednesday, Nov. 1, preventing hundreds of thousands of potentially lethal doses of suspected fentanyl/heroin from hitting the streets. NYDETF comprises agents and officers of the DEA, New York City Police Department (NYPD), and the New York State Police (NYSP).

Reacting to the find, Brennan said, “This investigation highlights potential dangers from a fentanyl/heroin packaging mill operating in a residential building. Not only is exposure to lethal drugs a risk to innocent residents when a half million small packages of lethal drugs are bagged in a neighboring apartment, but their security may be compromised as well.”

 

She added, “Across the city, New Yorkers are suffering the loss of precious lives to deadly drugs, and are fed up with every aspect of fentanyl trafficking. We will continue to work with all our law enforcement partners to protect the safety of our communities.” She went on to thank all those involved for their work on the case.

 

During the month-long investigation, according to the prosecution, members of NYDETF Group T-22 conducted both physical and electronic surveillance at 1244 Grand Concourse, Apartment 2B, and observed around ten people going in and out of the apartment carrying bags and moving a glass top table, chairs, and other equipment.

 

They said that on Wednesday, Nov. 1, beginning at around 11 a.m., agents and officers allegedly observed Aremedis Rivera, 41, enter 1244 Grand Concourse, followed by Juan Rivera, 44, a few hours later. They said both had previously been seen coming and going from the suspected mill location. Shortly before 5 p.m., they said Aremedis Rivera allegedly exited the building carrying two large, reusable shopping bags, and climbed into a livery car, travelled seven blocks, and exited the vehicle in the vicinity of Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. They said agents and officers stopped him and secured the bags he was carrying.

 

Officials said that over the next hour, agents and officers observed Heriberto Rivera, 43, walk out of 1244 Grand Concourse, followed by Luis Ledesma, 38. They said both were allegedly among those previously been seen entering and exiting the location, and that soon afterwards, a tenant in the building, who appeared to be agitated, came outside yelling about men attempting to enter his apartment.

 

According to the prosecution, members of NYDETF Group T-22 ran into the building and apprehended another individual, John Luis Reyes, 36, in the lobby. They said that as the subjects of the investigation were fleeing, agents and officers entered 1244 Grand Concourse, Apartment 2B, and froze the location.

They said agents and officers apprehended Oscar Taveras, 32, Juan Rivera, and Miguel Delacruz, 29, on the roof. They said Ivan Carlos-Serrano, 23, Juan Albert Serrano, 26, Kelvin Ledesma, 26 and Richard Manuel-Rivera, 28, were discovered hiding together under solar panels on the roof. Physical and electronic surveillance, as well as reviews of building security video, allegedly linked all 11 charged individuals to the alleged mill location.

 

According to the prosecution, at approximately 11:15 p.m., agents and officers conducted court-authorized searches of the two bags seized from Aremedis Rivera. They said inside the bags were around 100,000 glassine envelopes containing fentanyl/heroin, packaged into brick-shaped squares, wrapped in magazine paper.

 

They said members of NYDETF Group T-22 also conducted a court-authorized search of 1244 Grand Concourse, Apartment 2B, and that inside the living room, agents and officers recovered hundreds of thousands of glassines containing fentanyl from bags on the couch and the floor, and from the top of a glass top table and a second table. Quantities of loose powdered fentanyl were also recovered, they said.

In addition, they said all of the equipment necessary for packaging fentanyl/heroin was present, including bags of cutting agents, a box filled with coffee grinders containing a white powdery substance, multiple scales, and stamps used for branding. They said thousands of empty glassine envelopes were found in the apartment, including inside the oven. According to the prosecution, one technique mill workers allegedly use to speed up the process of filling glassines is to warm empty envelopes in an oven.

 

They said a field test on the drugs recovered indicated the presence of fentanyl in some of narcotics and the result of DEA laboratory analyses are pending.

 

Reacting to the find, Caban said that by systematically targeting heroin and fentanyl supply sources like this the one dismantled in The Bronx, the NYPD and law enforcement partners were fulfilling their mission to save lives. “Dismantling this operation and preventing these deadly drugs from reaching the streets and neighborhoods of New York is our latest success in advancing that mission,” he said. He went on to also thank all those involve for using “every tool at our disposal to eradicate drug trafficking networks and hold the criminals behind them to full account.”

Meanwhile, for her part, Clark said, “Fentanyl and heroin continue to flood The Bronx, as evidenced by the large supply found in an apartment, packaged and ready to be sold to thousands of drug users. We are so fortunate that our partners in the NY Drug Enforcement Task Force and Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan stopped this deadly stockpile from being distributed.”

 

As reported, at the one month remembrance service for Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, who died of apparent fentanyl poisoning during a medical emergency at El Divino Niño Daycare Center on Morris Avenue in the Kingsbridge Heights section of the Bronx on Friday, Sept. 15, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson told Norwood News she disagreed that the fentanyl crisis in the country was overblown, as some media reports have suggested.

NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) provides training and regularly updated information on how to obtain and administer naloxone (Narcan). Click here for more information.

 

Read our previous coverage on the Divino Niño Daycare Center tragedy here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

 

Read our previous coverage on other fentanyl drug and arms takedowns reported in recent months here, here, and here.

 

The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law.