DEA Does Drug Surveillance At Woodbridge Home Depot

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A long-term undercover surveillance operation by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency led investigators to the parking lot of the Woodbridge Home Depot, it was recently announced. Duffle bags of drugs were exchanged in the Home Depot parking lot in September of this year, DEA agents say; when opened, agents found at least 25 bricks of fentanyl/heroin powder inside.

The incident happened earlier this year, in September, but the news was just announced recently by the DEA.

Woodbridge police appeared familiar with the incident. They assured Patch this was an isolated event, and the Woodbridge Home Depot is not routinely monitored by the DEA nor is it known as an area for drug sales.

"That is not a drug hot spot. It just happened to be where their investigation led them to and continued on from there," said Capt. Roy Hoppock of the Woodbridge PD.

On September 5 of this year, members of the Queens Narcotics Major Case Squad and New Jersey branch of the DEA were conducting surveillance in Woodbridge, N.J., in the vicinity of a Home Depot located off Rt. 9. At approximately 2:45 p.m., detectives observed a tractor trailer with California license plates pull into a rear parking lot of the Home Depot.

Two hours later, two men, identified as Edwin Guzman and Manuel Rivera-Santana, allegedly approached the rear lot, travelling on foot from the front of the store, and met with two men who had been observed inside the tractor trailer. Together they walked to the far side of the truck. Shortly thereafter DEA agents watched as Guzman and Rivera headed back towards the front of the store, with Santana carrying a large duffle bag. The bag appeared to be full and heavy. They placed the bag in a Toyota Sienna and climbed inside.

Detectives and agents followed the Toyota Sienna across the George Washington Bridge to the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, and pulled the vehicle over after it had exited near West 161 Street. Detectives and agents opened the bag and recovered the 25 brick kilogram-size packages, each found to contain either pure fentanyl or a fentanyl/heroin mixture. Guzman and Santana were both arrested at the scene and charged with drug trafficking.

The arrests were announced via a press release from the New York City Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. You can read the full press release here: http://www.snpnyc.org/wp-conte...