Police seized a “large-scale heroin packaging factory” in New York City this week and seized suspicious drugs worth about $ 12 million, authorities said Wednesday.
The failure in Queens on Monday involved a man accused of supervising the packaging and three women accused of working for him, the drug enforcement administration said in a statement.
According to officials, about 39 pounds, or 39 kilograms, of what is believed to be heroin, and 1,000 suspected fentanyl pills were seized. Lab tests were pending, the DEA said.
Luis Martinez, who is accused of running the operation out of his apartment, is facing charges of acting as a major trader and other charges. He and the three women were arrested Tuesday night, officials said. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.
They were arrested Monday afternoon after Martinez left the apartment with a $ 200,000 backpack, officials said. Inside the apartment, police, according to the DEA, found the three women and the drug packaging.
Authorities from several agencies involved in the bust said it would save lives. Opioid addiction and overdose deaths are called a nationwide crisis.
“This drug cage contains nearly $ 12 million in narcotics and was like an opioid landmine that could distribute hundreds of thousands of heroin doses in the Northeast,” Ray Donovan, the DEA’s special agent in New York, said in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has killed more than 81,000 people from drug overdoses of all kinds in the U.S. in the twelve months ended May 2020.
The CDC said that synthetic opioids – mostly illegally manufactured fentanyl – were the primary cause of the increase in deaths.
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is cheaper than heroin, is sometimes mixed with heroin to make it more powerful. People may not be aware that it has been added, which increases the risk of overdose, experts said.
