There will be less Magic City and Hot Sauce on the streets after officers seized $2 million worth of narcotics from a Bronx “heroin mill” Wednesday afternoon, the US Drug Enforcement Agency and the NYPD announced Thursday.
Officers from the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force raided a Morrisania apartment and caught drug peddlers in the act of cutting and packaging the heroin into individually labeled glassine envelopes, NYPD Chief Brian McCarthy, commanding officer of the Criminal Enterprise Division, told reporters Thursday.
In addition to the drugs, officers recovered 46 stamps used to brand the drugs with colorful names–such as Death Wish, Stop Snitching, and Menace 2 Society.
The names on the stamps have been associated with at least four heroin- and fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2016 and 2017, officials said, including two deaths in Manhattan, one in Staten Island and one in the Bronx.
Wladimir Rosa Reyes, Antonio Delorbe Mercedes, Daniel Garcia Mithill , Antonio Delorbe, Gisela Guzman Hernandez, Norlisa Jimenez, Andy Zayas, Osvaldo Monegro, Alcibiades Delosantos Mateo, and Jose Duarte were arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the Department of Justice. The mill was located in an apartment in 547 East 168th Street shortly before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Other “brand names” on the stamps included American Express, Red Bull, Best Buy, and Pink Panther.
“They could have some serious trademark infringement issues,” one official said.