Massive fentanyl pill mill busted in Bronx, with 4 defendants behind bars and 50 pounds of drugs seized
NEW YORK — The blacked-out windows of a Bronx apartment weren’t enough to hide the lethal fentanyl mill operating inside.
Four accused drug dealers were busted and charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and narcotics distribution after one of the largest fentanyl seizures in New York history, with more than 50 pounds of the drug – including 200,000 suspected fentanyl pills – recovered inside the residence, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
“The thought of the potential damage this stunning amount of fentanyl could have inflicted on New Yorkers is terrifying,” said Williams on Friday after the takedown of the operation with enough fentanyl to create 1 million lethal doses of the drug.
According to authorities, the windows of the first-floor apartment in a residential neighborhood were covered with black trash bags and dark-colored fabric to hide the illicit operation and the defendants used a surveillance system in the basement to monitor activities on the streets above.
Some of the pills were already packaged for distribution to other drug dealers, court papers said. And in some instances, the pills were made to resemble prescription drugs or party drugs such as ecstasy, officials said.
The defendants, all residents of the city, were identified as Wellington Espinal, 41, Roberto Vargas-Paulino, 31, Christian Espinal, 20, and Heriberto Espinal, 27, with each facing a minimum jail term of 10 years to a maximum of life behind bars if convicted.
The conspirators ran the operation “dangerously close to where families residents and children innocently play,” said Office of Homeland Security Special Agent Ivan Arvelo. “In recent months, we have witnessed a devastating pattern, with multiple instances of deadly activities occurring mere feet away from places we entrust our children’s safety.”
According to Mayor Eric Adams’ office, fentanyl is now the most common drug involved in New York drug overdose deaths.
A Manhattan federal court complaint said the bust followed an investigation launched last month at the two-story home in a residential section of the Bronx where the dealers used industrial-scale pill presses to create hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills.
“This is one of the largest fentanyl pill mills we have seen in New York City,” said Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Frank Tarantino. “Fentanyl pills are being manufactured in these clandestine pill mills right here, in our neighborhoods, and unleashed into our communities.”
Last week, authorities arrested an accused drug trafficker rolling a suitcase packed with 13 kilos of fentanyl aboard a city subway train, inside a subway station and through the streets of the Bronx.
Defendant Juan Gabriel Herrara Vargas, 42, was nabbed with a second suitcase filled with 50,000 glassine containers of the drug only blocks away from the daycare center where a 1-year-old boy died after his Sept. 15 exposure to the drug.
