NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Bronx man has been arrested after investigators found about 50 pounds of fentanyl and heroin, valued at close to $7 million, in an apartment near Van Cortlandt Park, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Samuel Rojas-Camacho, 59, was taken into custody on Monday night and charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance as well as second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia.
According to court documents, Rojas-Camacho was a passenger in a green Jaguar sedan that agents and police officers stopped at the southwest corner of Jerome Avenue and East 233rd Street around 9 p.m. Monday.
The investigation revealed that he had traveled out of state that same day. Rojas-Camacho was previously seen on video surveillance entering and exiting an apartment building at 3535 Dekalb Ave. believed to be a drug stash site on three separate occasions.
About an hour after the traffic stop, officers searched an apartment inside the building and found 11 brick-shaped packages of heroin and fentanyl, each containing around one kilogram of narcotics, five hockey puck-shaped packages, and a large plastic bag containing heroin and fentanyl hidden inside a secret compartment in a coffee table.
A shoebox in the bedroom contained an additional amount of heroin and fentanyl, prosecutors said, while street-ready glassine envelopes stamped with the brand name "Skull Crusher," as well as empty glassines and plastic bags of heroin and fentanyl were also recovered from the bedroom closet.
"This case illustrates how narcotics flow from state to state, with large amounts of fentanyl and heroin continuing to flood New York City," said Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan. "Traffickers take great pains to conceal drug shipments that sell for millions of dollars, in this case inside a table outfitted with a hidden trap compartment. Overdose rates remain at record-high levels, with the majority of deaths attributed to fentanyl."
Prosecutors said all of the equipment and paraphernalia necessary for packaging narcotics were found in the unit, such as coffee grinders, rubber gloves, an air purifier and a scale. Bank receipts and medicine bottles in Rojas-Camacho’s name were also recovered.
A field test on some of the narcotics has resulted in positive results for fentanyl and heroin. Further analysis is pending.
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