Approximately $5 Million drugs found; Six individuals apprehended on fire escape as they attempted to flee
Six individuals were arrested in connection with a large-scale heroin/fentanyl packaging mill in the Crotona neighborhood of the Bronx. Over 25 kilograms of narcotics (more than 55 pounds), carrying a street value of more than $5 million, was destined for distribution throughout New York City and in Massachusetts. The packaging mill was located inside an apartment across the street from a public elementary school and near the Bronx Zoo.
Bridget G. Brennan, New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, Frank A. Tarentino III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Division, New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell and New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen announced the arrests following the arraignment of six individuals in Manhattan Criminal Court over the weekend.
Two criminal complaints filed by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) contain charges of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First and Third Degrees and Criminally Using Drug Paraphernalia in the Second Degree.
The investigation was conducted by DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-22, which is comprised of agents and officers with DEA New York Division, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York State Police. SNP’s Investigators Unit and DEA’s Springfield Regional Office in Massachusetts assisted in the investigation.
On Thursday, August 4, 2022, at approximately 6:22 p.m., members of NYDETF Group T-22 arrived at 2120 Crotona Ave., Apt. 12, located across the street from PS 57 Crescent, in order to conduct a court- authorized search. As agents and officers attempted to gain entry to the apartment, members of Group T-22 observed 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, RANDY LEDESMA, ALEXIS ROSARIO SABRINO, JOSE MORA, DARWIN TAVERAS SANTOS, MIGUEL THEN SERVERINO and
DAYSON TAVERAS, reversed direction to move down the fire escape. They were detained between the second and fourth floors of the building.
Once 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. Inside a bedroom, agents and officers recovered a suitcase containing approximately 300,000 glassine envelopes filled with heroin/fentanyl. Another 7,000 glassines of heroin/fentanyl were inside a bedroom closet. Approximately 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.
Additional individuals are being prosecuted by the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. On August 3, 2022, prior to the court-authorized search at 2120 Crotona Ave., Apt. 12, one individual, 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 individuals 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.
Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan thanked Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and commended SNP’s Special Investigations Bureau and Investigators Unit, the DEA’s New York Division and New England Division, the New York City Police Department and the New York State Police for their work on the investigation.
“The mass production and distribution of fentanyl is fueling record numbers of overdose deaths across New York City and the nation,” said Special Prosecutor Brennan. “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. Drug traffickers who attempt to profit by widely distributing deadly drugs will face appropriate consequences for the harm they have caused.”
Bronx District Attorney Clark said, “This investigation by Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan and the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force has dismantled a major heroin and fentanyl mill, located right across the street from one public school, within three blocks of two others and four blocks from the Bronx Zoo, and intercepted 55 pounds of drugs that would have ravaged lives throughout the city. Traffickers are brazenly embedding themselves in our communities and we will not tolerate it. We will keep working to stop them from using the Bronx as a hub for narcotics distribution.”
“Six members of a drug trafficking organization were caught climbing out of $5 million heroin and fentanyl packaging mill only to find law enforcement in their path,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Tarentino. “There is nothing more important for DEA than safeguarding the public from the harm associated with drug trafficking, and this case makes an enormous impact in decreasing the supply of heroin and fentanyl throughout the Northeast. I applaud the members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, the NYC Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor and the DEA’s New England Division for their assistance in this investigation.”
“Our fight to rid our community of illegal drugs is unrelenting,” said NYPD Commissioner Sewell. “The criminals who peddle them prey on some of our city’s most vulnerable people, and the NYPD will make every effort to hold them accountable. I want to thank the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York, the DEA New York Division, the New York State Police, the Bronx District Attorney, and all of our law-enforcement partners for their outstanding work on this case.”
