The 64 kilos of heroin were found in a nondescript, three-story home in University Heights that was being used as a heroin mill — and that was being monitored by the joint Drug Enforcement Task Force.
About 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, investigators saw two men leaving the home with “heavily weighted bags,” and stopped them a short distance away from the Harrison Ave. house.
The bags were loaded with $50,000 in cash that had been wrapped in bundles, officials said.
Cops then went up to the house and knocked on the front door — leading “several” people to run out of the back door, where more members of the joint DEA, NYPD and State Police task force were waiting for them.
“Out back they were coming out like crazy, but there was no way to get over the fence,” said one witness, a neighbor who asked not be identified.
Inside the house, investigators found another $300,000 in cash — and heroin everywhere.
Glassine envelopes of the deadly drug were piled on tables and stuffed into boxes, suitcases and plastic bags. Some of the glassines were already bundled into color-coded packages that were wrapped in plastic and ready for delivery, the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office said.
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“When we entered the location, the heroin was packaged, branded and bundled,” said DEA Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt. “Agents and officers estimate that in another 20 minutes, the heroin would have been shipped out the door to be sold on the streets of New York and tri-state areas.”
The estimated street value of the drugs is $15 million.
Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said the “user-ready glassines” were “meant to flood our region with this deadly drug.”
“This was a highly organized operation, equipped with desk lamps, boxes, the rows and rows of glassines,” grinders and face masks, she said. “Heroin-filled envelopes were clearly labeled with catchy brand names, like Red Bull and Sweet Dreams, packaged in color-coded neon plastic, and stored in suitcases obviously ready to be transported.”
Eight alleged members of the heroin mill were awaiting arraignment on Friday.
One of the eight, Fran Hernandez, was arrested in another heroin mill bust in the Bronx back in March. He was out on $10,000 bail when he was busted carrying one of the bags of cash from the house.
Residents of the working-class neighborhood were astonished to find out what had been going on there.
“Nobody had any idea. They didn’t speak to anybody,” said next-door neighbor Beverly McFarlan. “They have all that money and they never even had a barbecue for the block!”
Heroin has become a deadly plague in the Empire State.
A report last month from the state Controller's office found heroin deaths in New York are at a record high, with overdose deaths in the state rising faster over the past decade than in nearly all other states.
Citing federal statistics, the report by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli shows in 2014 heroin-related overdose deaths in New York hit a record 825, up by 159, or 24%, over 2013. That was nearly 25 times higher than a decade ago.
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