Federal drug agents raided a heroin distribution den -- in a ground floor studio apartment in Richmond Hill, Queens -- and seized a stash worth $20 million, authorities said today.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Organized Crime Drug enforcement Strike Force had been watching the 122nd Street apartment for weeks.
On Tuesday night they saw a person wearing latex drugs, like those used by heroin mill workers, at the site.
After midnight Jose Santiago Diaz, 44, left the apartment, with keys to it, and had a smell on heroin on him when agents questioned him, authorities said.
After obtaining a search warrant Wednesday that afternoon, agents raided the apartment and found 86 pounds of heroin — including eight packages of pressed heroin, weighing more than 2 ½ pounds each, lying on the floor. Another 11 packages were found inside a duffel bag.
Investigators also found a “makeshift assembly line had been set up on a table, complete with kilo presses and multiple buckets containing grinders, sifters and other paraphernalia,” according to a joint statement by the DEA, NYPD, FBI and the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
Another 22 pounds of loose heroin was on the table. Brown sugar used to cut the heroin was also discovered in the apartment.
Diaz, of The Bronx, was identified as an illegal alien who was previously deported to the Dominican Republic. He was charged with criminal drug possession and other charges.
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