Six suspects alleged to be behind the $7million heroin and fentanyl ring were released without bail.
Millions of dollars worth of drugs were discovered by federal agents in a one-bedroom Bronx flat, arresting 6 people and seizing hundreds of envelopes containing heroin and fentanyl.
Officers arrested 21-year-old Parfraimy Antonio, 21-year-old Diego Tejada, 23-year-old Frandi Ledema, 23-year-old Frederick Baldera, 24-year-old Jaslin Baldera, and 25-year-old Livo Valdez.
When police entered the flat at 2559 Sedgwick Avenue, they found them packing powder-filled glassine envelopes. There were hundreds of thousands of envelopes overflowing from cardboard boxes and plastic bins and covering the bed and two tabletops.
The one-bedroom apartment also contained paraphernalia typical of fentanyl/heroin mill including a scale, empty glassine envelopes, glass table, desk lamps, an ink bottle, small spoons, stamps, ink pads, and grinders.
“The sheer volume of heroin and fentanyl packages assembled in a small apartment just off the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx is shocking,” Bridget G. Brennan, Special Narcotics Prosecutor, said in a statement.
“Even veteran narcotics investigators were surprised by the output of this packaging operation, which was run out of a nondescript apartment in the borough afflicted by the city’s highest rate of overdose death.”
According to authorities, the drugs are estimated to have a value of $7million and were destined to be distributed to New England and New York.
The six suspects were each charged with criminally using drug paraphernalia and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Despite the amount of drugs seized, all suspects were release without bail.
Under New York’s new criminal justice law, cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses has been cleared pending trial.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Di Paolo said: “None of the defendants are eligible for bail.”
Their defense lawyers argued that none of them had a previous criminal record. All six were asked to surrender their passports and are due to go back in court next month.
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Replaced!