NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Two people were arrested after more than 25 pounds of suspected fentanyl and cocaine were found inside a Bronx apartment last week, prosecutors announced Monday.
The drugs, along with $100,000, were recovered by the U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force after serving an unrelated arrest warrant for a woman at the apartment in Spuyten Duyvil on May 8 at around 6 a.m. Inside, they discovered a cache of narcotics and drug packaging equipment, according to court documents.
The woman, Aracely Ortiz, 43, was wanted on a fugitive arrest warrant. Another individual, Jonathan Corona, 36, was also inside the apartment and both were arrested. Both were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees.
When officers entered the apartment, they allegedly found Corona getting out of a bedroom, while Ortiz was inside the bedroom, prosecutors said.
Later that day, at around 1:35 p.m., members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force conducted a search of the two-bedroom apartment. Inside the first bedroom, they allegedly found a glass-topped table holding numerous glassine envelopes filled with fentanyl, as well as a scale and other narcotics packaging paraphernalia, according to court documents.
A safe inside a bedroom closet allegedly contained three brick-shaped white packages of fentanyl and two brick-shaped black packages of cocaine, prosecutors said.
In a search of the second bedroom, officers also allegedly recovered a money counter, around $100,000 in cash, a large bag containing six brick-shaped packages of cocaine, and three glass jars containing fentanyl.
Ten additional packages of a yet-to-be-identified substance were also recovered in the apartment, prosecutors said.
Field tests confirmed the presence of fentanyl and cocaine in the narcotics found in the safe. The DEA is still analyzing the drugs seized at the apartment, and those results are pending.