Nine people were charged following a long-term, wiretap investigation into the manufacturing and interstate trafficking of counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, stemming from drug-related activity that allegedly took place in The Bronx, Manhattan, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) in Manhattan Supreme Court announced on March 29.

 

The investigation resulted in the seizure of over 26,000 pills containing fentanyl; 2 kilograms of powdered fentanyl; nearly 50,000 pills, weighing about 41 pounds, containing methamphetamine; and 3 kilograms of powdered cocaine. The estimated street value of the drugs seized is approximately $2.5 million.

 

Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s SNP, Frank Tarantino III, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Division, and New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell announced the arrests and charges at the unsealing of an indictment this week. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. reviewed and submitted wiretap applications for court authorization during the investigation.

 

As reported, a number of Bronx elected officials have recently defended Bragg following verbal attacks by former President Donald J. Trump in the context of an investigation into Trump by the district attorney’s office over alleged hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

 

“Fentanyl is pushing overdose deaths in our city to record highs,” said Brennan. “Those charged today made a business out of manufacturing and distributing lethal fentanyl masquerading as legitimate prescription pills.” She added, “Fake fentanyl pills pose a hidden threat to users who think they know the potency of the drugs they are buying. The sellers make a calculated decision to profit off their naiveté regardless of the deadly consequences.”

 

According to the prosecution, eight individuals were charged in one indictment, including four members of the same family: Edwin Cabrera, his brother Elvis Cabrera, their sister Jennifer Duran and an uncle, Miguel Castillo, who resides in Rhode Island. Also charged in the same indictment were Frankie Rosario, Juan Dejesus, Erick Sanchez, and Ruben Burgos.

 

Charges included conspiracy in the second degree, criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first, second, third, fifth and seventh degrees, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and criminal facilitation in the second degree. A separate indictment charges Jose Rodriguez with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and criminal possession of a firearm. A full list of the charges is included further below.

 

SNP officials said the nearly two-year investigation was conducted by DEA New York Division Group D-24, with assistance from SNP’s investigators unit, the NYPD Narcotics Borough Manhattan North, the New York State Police, and the FBI Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force.

 

Tarantino III said the investigation underscored the dangers lurking on New York’s streets in the form of fake fentanyl pills. “Fentanyl and methamphetamine are being pressed into pills by local dealers like the Cabrera brothers, as well as the Cartels in Mexico,” he said. “There is no difference between a pill mill in Mexico and a boiler room in The Bronx because they both produce death. DEA analysis shows that 60% of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills contain a deadly amount of fentanyl. I applaud the hard work by the DEA Group D-24, the New York City Police Department and the NYC Office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor on this investigation which saved lives.”

 

At its outset, according to SNP officials, the investigation focused on two brothers, Edwin Cabrera and Elvis Cabrera, who were allegedly engaged in trafficking narcotics. The latter was subsequently incarcerated on two separate sets of charges in The Bronx. The investigation continued and revealed that Edwin Cabrera was allegedly manufacturing counterfeit pills containing fentanyl that appeared to be prescription oxycodone, made with a pill-pressing machine.

SNP officials said the majority of the pills seized in the case were recovered from a boiler-room area of a residential apartment building at 901 Woodycrest Avenue in the Highbridge section of The Bronx, during a search on Feb. 16, 2023. They said the boiler room area was used as a stash location and was allegedly under the control of Dejesus, the building superintendent, and one of the charged defendants.

 

During the course of the conspiracy, which ran from Aug. 29, 2019 to Feb. 16, 2023, SNP officials said records and communications allegedly showed that Edwin Cabrera and Duran ordered two pill-pressing machines to be delivered through the mail to an address in Manhattan. They said Edwin Cabrera, Elvis Cabrera and Duran also allegedly placed multiple orders for pill-pressing materials to be delivered through the mail to addresses in Manhattan and Rhode Island, including microcrystalline cellulose, which acts as a cut and lubricant/binding agent to prevent pills from sticking to machinery while allowing the pills to accept the imprint or stamp of the manufacturer’s choosing.

 

According to the prosecution, members of the alleged conspiracy communicated by phone and by text message, using coded language as they discussed delivery of pill-pressing materials, possession and sale of narcotics, manufacturing of pills, and imprints on pills. Many of the conversations were in Spanish, SNP officials said.

 

The wiretap allowed law enforcement to dismantle the interstate narcotics-trafficking organization. SNP officials said that on Nov. 17, 2022, Edwin Cabrera allegedly told Sanchez, “Yo, I got three place for tomorrow.” They said video footage from 551 West 185th Street in Manhattan, where Sanchez lives, captured Edwin Cabrera arriving that evening with a large bulge visible in his sweater pockets. They added that when he left several minutes later, the bulge was not present.

 

The following day, on Nov. 18, 2022, SNP officials said Sanchez entered a gray Mercedes Sprinter van bearing Massachusetts license plates and travelled to Providence, R.I., where he allegedly transferred narcotics to an unindicted person. They said this person was subsequently stopped by members of the FBI’s Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force, who recovered approximately 3,000 pills containing fentanyl packed inside three heat-sealed bags.

 

Afterwards, they said Edwin Cabrera and Elvis Cabrera allegedly engaged in phone calls about the stop by law enforcement and how Sanchez had been used to deliver narcotics.

 

Based on intercepted phone communications and physical surveillance, on Jan. 9, this year, SNP officials said Castillo was stopped in a Kia Sorrento in The Bronx. They said a New York State Police trooper used a narcotics-detection K9, Jet, to find a kilogram of cocaine inside the vehicle. Later on Jan. 26, again based on intercepted phone communications and physical surveillance, they said Rosario, an alleged narcotics supplier from Pennsylvania, was stopped in a passenger van and found to be in possession of two kilograms of fentanyl.

 

On Feb. 16, this year, the prosecution said that members of the DEA New York Division’s Group D-24 and the NYPD’s Narcotics Borough Manhattan North conducted a series of searches. In a court-authorized search of the home of Edwin Cabrera, located at 709 West 176th Street, Apt. 3A, in Manhattan, according to the SNP, agents and officers recovered two loaded guns and over 1,100 pills containing methamphetamine.

 

From Duran’s home, located at 551 West 185th Street, Apt. 1D, in Manhattan, SNP officials said agents and officers recovered a small number of counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and 10 kilograms of pill-pressing materials. Pursuant to a search of a neighboring apartment, located at 551 West 185th Street, Apt. 1A, where Sanchez lives, they said agents and officers recovered various narcotics and a gun.

 

SNP officials said intelligence led agents and officers to search 901 Woodycrest Avenue in The Bronx. In a hidden compartment behind a false wall in the boiler-room area of that location, they said agents and officers recovered over 23,000 pills containing fentanyl, including approximately 1,600 that contained fentanyl and the fentanyl analog para-flourofentanyl. They said also in the compartment were nearly 50,000 multi-colored pills containing methamphetamine, which weighed approximately 41 pounds.

 

According to the SNP, the pills were in various shapes, including a silhouette of former President Donald J. Trump, Bitcoin and Mickey Mouse. Other items seized included two kilograms of cocaine and a “kilo press” used for compacting narcotics into brick-shaped packages.

 

Brennan thanked Bragg, Jr. and Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, and commended SNP’s Special Investigations Bureau, Trial Division and Investigators Unit, DEA New York Division, the NYPD’s Narcotics Borough Manhattan North, the New York State Police and the FBI Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force for their work on the investigation.

Sewell said abuse of illicit drugs and what she said was the deadly additive fentanyl had cut a wide swath across the nation, affecting people from all walks of life, in every neighborhood. “To combat this scourge in New York City, the NYPD and our law enforcement partners are relentless in our efforts to shut down illegal narcotics manufacturers and suppliers, to hold those involved fully accountable and, ultimately, to save lives,” she said. “I commend and thank all of the NYPD, New York State Police, DEA, and FBI investigators, as well as everyone from the offices of the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor and The Bronx and Manhattan district attorneys, for their critical work on this important case.”

 

 Defendants – Cabrera et al. IND                          Charges

Edwin Cabrera New York, NY Age: 39	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CSCS 1st – 3 counts CPCS 2nd –1 count CPW 2nd – 2 counts
Frankie Rosario Reading, PA Age: 24	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CPCS 1st – 1 count CPCS 3rd – 1 count
Juan Dejesus New York, NY Age: 52	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CPCS 1st – 2 counts CPCS 2nd – 1 count CPCS 3rd – 2 counts CPCS 5th – 1 count
Erick Sanchez New York, NY Age: 27	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CPCS 1st – 1 count CPCS 3rd – 1 count CPCS 7th – 1 count
Jennifer Duran New York, NY Age: 44	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count Criminal Facilitation 2nd – 1 count CPCS 7th – 1 count
Miguel Castillo Providence, RI Age: 44	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CPCS1st – 1 count CPCS 3rd – 1 count
Ruben Burgos New York, NY Age: 38	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count CPCS 3rd – 2 counts CPCS 7th – 1 count
Elvis Cabrera New York, NY Age: 35	Conspiracy 2nd – 1 count

 

Defendant – Rodriguez IND	Charges
Jose Rodriguez Bronx, NY Age: 32	CPW 3rd – 1 count Criminal Possession of a Firearm – 1 count

 

A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

In January, as reported, DEA officials announced that enough lethal fentanyl was seized in New York in 2022, including in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx, to kill New York State’s population three times over.

 

As also reported, Attorney General Letitia James announced earlier this week that five members of a Bronx gun and heroin trafficking ring were sentenced for their crimes.

 

In other drug-related news, on Saturday, April 1, AP reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter.