Federal agents seized a massive load of fentanyl with a street value of $7.5 million — including narcotics mixed with a second deadly drug, xylazine — in raids in Manhattan and the Bronx, the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
The raids, each the result of unrelated Drug Enforcement Administration investigations that occurred within six hours on Wednesday, targeted large-scale packaging operations, where the synthetic opioid was parceled into glassine envelopes before making its way to the streets.
The operation resulted in eight arrests and the recovery of more than 90 pounds of fentanyl, along with $30,000 and two loaded firearms.
The action kicked off in the Bronx, where agents descended on a Selwyn Ave. apartment near. E. Mt. Eden Ave. in West Bronx around 1 p.m., according to Brennan.
Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor
A handgun (left) and bags of fentanyl were seized by the DEA’s New York Task Force Division and the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office at fentanyl mills in Manhattan and the Bronx. (Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor)
Authorities seized about 55 pounds of fentanyl and xylazine — also know by the street name tranq or the “zombie drug” — along with hundreds of thousands of filled glassine envelopes ready for distribution.
Leocadio Nunez-Olivares, 38, who was previously spotted going in and out of the apartment where that packaging operation was located, was arrested at his home in Washington Heights around 4:30 p.m. He’s charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.
Around 2 p.m., law enforcement hit a second Bronx apartment, on Prospect Ave. near E. 187th St. in Belmont, seizing more than 16 pounds of fentanyl and $20,000, Brennan said.
Hector Tavarez, 38, Jose Hidalgo, 25, Neriy Vlerio, 31, and Hector Tavarez Negrin, 72, were arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.
In Manhattan, agents raided an apartment on W. 183rd St. near Audubon Ave. in Washington Heights around 6 p.m.
Agents found two loaded firearms, including a .357 revolver in a dresser drawer and a 9-mm Beretta pistol, in the bedroom alongside a plastic container filled with fentanyl powder. Two closets in the hallway contained bags stuffed with fentanyl bricks and more than 1,000 glassine envelopes filled with the drug.
Gerardo Rivera, 50, Hilisu Garcia, 29, and Samir Tejada Almanzar, 20, were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.