Police brought down a “large-scale heroin packaging factory” in New York City this week and seized suspected drugs worth an estimated $ 12 million, officials said on Wednesday.
Monday’s arrest in Queens involved a man accused of overseeing the packaging operation and three women accused of working for him, the Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement.
About 86 pounds, or 39 kilos, of what is believed to be heroin and 1,000 alleged fentanyl pills have been seized, officials said. Laboratory tests were pending, the DEA said.
Luis Martinez, accused of running the operation in his apartment, faces charges of operating as a major drug dealer and other charges. He and the three women were indicted Tuesday night, officials said. It was not clear whether they had lawyers.
They were arrested on Monday afternoon after Martinez left the apartment carrying a $ 200,000 backpack, officials said. Inside the apartment, the police found the three women and the drug packaging operation, according to the DEA.
Officials at various agencies involved in the seizure said it would save lives. Opioid addiction and overdose deaths were called a national crisis.
“This drug den contained nearly $ 12 million in narcotics and was like an opioid land mine capable of dispersing hundreds of thousands of doses of heroin across the Northeast,” said Ray Donovan, the DEA special agent in charge of New York. , in a statement.
More than 81,000 people died of overdoses involving medications of all kinds in the United States in the 12 months ending May 2020, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the end of the year. last year.
The CDC said that synthetic opioids – the majority of which illicitly produced fentanyl – appear to be the main factor in the increase in deaths.
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid cheaper than heroin, is sometimes mixed with heroin to make it more potent. People may not know it has been added, which increases the risk of an overdose, experts said.
