5 Arrested, $4M In Heroin Seized In Yonkers, The Bronx

YONKERS, NY — Five arrests were made and about $4 million worth of heroin was seized from a packaging mill in the Bronx and a vehicle in Yonkers. Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force Group T-21 and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit were conducting surveillance Aug. 2 in the vicinity of an apartment building at 1678 Nelson Ave. in the Bronx as part of an ongoing investigation.

Around 11:30 a.m., an individual was seen leaving the building carrying a grey backpack and got into a black Jeep. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The Jeep was followed to a parking lot at the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers.

At the mall, agents said they saw the driver of the Jeep meet with Marvin Rosa, 27, of Lebanon, PA, who got into the front passenger seat of the Jeep and then left it a short time later holding the grey backpack.

Agents said Rosa placed the backpack in the trunk of a silver Ford Focus and Pennsylvania license plates and joined Cheyenne Baker, 20, of Lebanon, PA, and briefly entered 8000 Mall Walk, before returning to the vehicle and driving off.

A DEA agent stopped the Ford Focus in the vicinity of 35 Vredenburgh Ave.

When agents searched the vehicle’s trunk, they recovered the grey backpack, which they said contained about 10,000 individual-dose glassine envelopes of heroin branded with the stamp “7up.”

Rosa and Baker were taken into custody. They were both charged with first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy, felonies.

Later in the day, agents arrested three New York men after surveillance and a search of what authorities described as “an active heroin packaging mill at the Nelson Avenue address.

Agents said they recovered about 10 kilograms of a substance consistent in appearance with heroin, including approximately 10 kilograms of heroin in powder form, a packaged kilogram of heroin and approximately six kilograms of heroin contained in individual glassine envelopes wrapped in paper.

Also recovered were packaging materials and paraphernalia, including ink stamps, grinders, electronic scales and hundreds of empty glassine envelopes.

The DEA estimated the black market value of the heroin at about $4 million.

The defendants were to be arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

DEA Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt said another heroin mill hidden in plain sight was tracked down.

“Opioid traffickers are infiltrating neighborhoods where hand-working New Yorkers are raising families,” he said. “Not only are these traffickers bringing crime and temptation to New Yorkers’ doorsteps, but they are fueling opioid addiction throughout the Northeast. That is why New York’s drug law enforcement continues to zero in on traffickers in our city.”

The defendants received the following charges:

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