In addition to being home to the Yankees, the Bronx just became home to the biggest heroin bust in New York City ever, thanks to the more than $50 million dollars worth of heroin narcotics officers seized on Sunday, in addition to $2 million dollars in cash and a gun.
Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said of the bust,
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Authorities were able to seize the heroin—which they said was one of many shipments, this one set to be delivered throughout the five boroughs in addition to Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island—in the Fieldston section of the Bronx by using wiretaps. Authorities were able to learn a local drug trafficking crew was getting large heroin shipments monthly from Culican, Mexico, run by the Sinaloa Cartel.
Officers heard of the large shipment that was to be delivered over the weekend and surveilled the previously mentioned crew, and their respective apartments, before stopping them on Sunday and searching the SUV they were in to find the 70 kilograms of heroin in rectangular packages as well as $24,000 cash hidden under the vehicle’s floor.
Authorities arrested Jose “Hippie” Mercedes, said to be the head of the crew, and Yenci Cruz Francisco, and charged them with drug trafficking and first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Authorities then searched apartments linked to the crew, finding $2 million in cash underneath floorboards and a .380 caliber firearm in another apartment.
“While this important seizure stopped a huge amount of heroin from flooding our city, it also highlights the critical need to intercept heroin before it ever reaches our region,” said Brennan.
[via New York Post]
