Heroin Mill Dismantled in Theater District: 28 Pounds of Drugs worth $6.5 Million Seized

NOV 12 -- (Manhattan, NY) JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division ("DEA"), BRIDGET G. BRENNAN, New York City Police Commissioner RAYMOND W. KELLY and New York State Police Acting Superintendent JOHN P. MELVILLE announced today the seizure of 13 kilograms of heroin worth approximately $6.5 million and the arrests of 4 individuals at an apartment building located at 417 W. 43 rd Street in Manhattan.

As a result of this investigation, the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force set up surveillance outside the apartment building over the past several days. Yesterday afternoon, investigators observed one individual worker exit the apartment building with a large plastic garbage bag and place it in a black BMW. The driver of the car attempted to speed off as investigators identified themselves and approached the car. His escape was blocked by traffic at the corner of 43 rd Street and

10 th Avenue

and investigators were able to make the arrest. A garbage bag in the car contained refuse from heroin production, including damaged “glassine” envelopes and other packaging material.

Members of the DEA New York Drug Enforcement Task Force and Investigators from the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office proceeded inside the apartment building to secure the heroin mill. They interrupted three heroin mill workers who had been busily packing heroin into user-ready “glassine” envelopes in the ground-floor, duplex apartment. Two workers tried to escape, leaving behind at least 250,000 glassines, much of it wrapped into bundles shrouded in glossy magazine paper. Each glassine sells for at least ten dollars on the street.

Piles of loose heroin and assorted drug packaging paraphernalia sat on tables where the defendants had been working assembly line-style. Several coffee grinders used to cut the drug with a diluting substance rested on the floor nearby. Many of the glassines were already stamped with the brand names, including “King Kong”, “Jersey Boys” and “95 South”, a reference to the interstate highway easily accessible through the nearby Lincoln Tunnel.