2023-05-03 20:13:50
What to Know
- A fentanyl trafficking investigation in New York City culminated in authorities finding about 300,000 fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, plus five kilograms of powdered fentanyl, from a hidden gas tank of a vehicle that stopped at the Bronx near a courthouse, federal authorities said. announced on Wednesday.
- Enrique Perez, 44, of Ohio, was later arrested Sunday and charged with first and third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
- The discovered fentanyl has an estimated street value of about $5 million, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
NEW YORK — A fentanyl trafficking investigation in New York City culminated in authorities finding nearly 300,000 fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, plus five kilograms of powdered fentanyl, from a hidden gas tank of a vehicle that stopped in the Bronx near a courthouse, federal authorities said. announced on Wednesday.
The discovered fentanyl has an estimated street value of about $5 million, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
“At a time when our city’s overdose rates are at record highs, the discovery of more than eleven pounds of powdered fentanyl and hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills made to look like prescription pills hidden in the tank of gasoline from a van near the Bronx Court House, is truly alarming,” Brennan said.
Enrique Perez, 44, of Ohio, was later arrested Sunday and charged with first and third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was arraigned Monday, at which time a $200,000 cash/bond bond and the condition of geolocation monitoring were set.
Information from Perez’s attorney was not immediately available.
Perez’s charges stem from an investigation in which members of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (or DEA) were conducting surveillance and stopped a Ford Expedition with Texas license plates on East 161st Street in the Bronx around at 1:39 p.m., according to prosecutors.
That’s when an NYPD K9 reportedly alerted authorities to the presence of narcotics in the vehicle, but officers and officers were unable to determine the exact location.
Prosecutors go on to say that Perez’s phone revealed photos of amounts of cash and a gas tank hidden inside the vehicle. It was there that authorities allegedly discovered a staggering number of fake blue oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and five kilos, approximately 11 pounds, of powdered fentanyl in sealed packets.
According to prosecutors, the seized fentanyl is believed to have originated in Mexico and the vehicle crossed the US-Mexico border multiple times.
This case is consistent with a pattern of drug trafficking observed in recent months in which suspected drug traffickers residing out of state transport large quantities of fentanyl pills and powder for distribution in New York City. In addition, according to authorities, the vehicles used have out-of-state license plates and carry drug loads worth a million dollars or more.
“This seizure demonstrates one of the many ways that evil drug cartels, like the Sinaloa cartel, smuggle fentanyl from Mexico to major cities like New York for distribution on the streets. As we step on the gas in our enforcement efforts, cartels go to extremes to hide illicit drugs in unlikely places, like the gas tank of a vehicle,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino III.
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