NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Six men have been charged in connection with a large-scale heroin and fentanyl packaging mill in the Bronx, worth around $5 million, that the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's office said Monday was destined for distribution throughout New York City and in Massachusetts.
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Randy Ledesma, 27, Alexis Rosario Sabrino, 29, Jose Mora, 52, Darwin Taveras Santos, 30, Miguel Then Serverino, 42, and Dayson Taveras, 23, were arrested on a fire escape while attempting to flee the mill, which was located inside an apartment across the street from P.S. 57 Crescent and near the Bronx Zoo.
Each was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on two criminal complaints, with charges including first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.
"The investigation and arrests announced today, resulting in the ultimate destruction of hundreds of thousands of glassines of lethal drugs, will undoubtedly prevent many deaths," said Special Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan. "Drug traffickers who attempt to profit by widely distributing deadly drugs will face appropriate consequences for the harm they have caused."
According to the investigation, members of the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force Group T-22 — which is comprised of agents and officers with the DEA's New York Division, the NYPD and the New York State Police — arrived at 2120 Crotona Ave., Apt. 12 on Thursday around 6:22 p.m. to conduct a court-order search.
As agents and officers attempted to gain entry to the apartment, members saw six individuals climbing the fire escape towards the roof of the five-story building. Upon seeing agents and officers stationed on top of the roof, the six men reversed direction to move down the fire escape. They were arrested between the second and fourth floors of the building.
Inside the apartment, agents and officers determined the front door had been fortified with extra dead bolts and a peep hole outfitted with a camera. Officials said that inside a bedroom, agents and officers recovered a suitcase containing around 300,000 glassine envelopes filled with heroin/fentanyl.
Another 7,000 glassines of heroin/fentanyl were inside a bedroom closet. About 200,000 glassines of heroin/fentanyl and another 5.5 kilograms in brick form were in the living room. Also recovered from the apartment were multiple stamps for labeling glassines and multiple grinders for mixing narcotics.
More individuals are being prosecuted by the Hampden County District Attorne's Office in Massachusetts.
Prior to the court-authorized search, members of Group T-22 were conducting surveillance and observed Carlos Cordova outside of the apartment building driving a white Honda Civic with Massachusetts license plates. Two other people were in the vehicle with him.
Later that evening, at 10:10 p.m., a vehicle stop was conducted in the vicinity of Route 391 off Exit 5 by members of the DEA Springfield Resident Office. Cordova, Josue Vazquez and Angel Rivera were arrested and over 5,000 glassines of heroin/fentanyl were recovered from the trunk of the vehicle. The heroin/glassines were stamped "Yeezy."
DEA laboratory analysis of the narcotics seized in New York and Massachusetts is pending.
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