'Operation Dirty Dope': Mass. DEA Helps Bust National Drug Smuggling Ring

NEW YORK, NY – A sprawling national smuggling ring suspected of delivering drugs from Mexico to Massachusetts, including heroin tested on addicts and laced with poisonous chemicals from nail polish remover to roach killer, was busted by the DEA in an operation dubbed "Operation Dirty Dope," according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday.

The investigation netted over 33 kilos of heroin and 2 kilos of fentanyl worth more than $13 million on the street, the Massachusetts DEA Task Force, New York Attorney General and New York State Police said in a press release Friday.

More than two dozen people were arrested in connection to the alleged national smuggling ring, which the Massachusetts Drug Enforcement Agency helped bust.

The operation, running since April 2015, led to the arrest of dealers from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona and New Jersey. It's one of the largest heroin seizures in New York history and is the single largest seizure in the 46-year history of the state’s Organized Crime Task Force.

The indictments were unsealed in Bronx County Court Friday, and describe a "sophisticated distribution ring that allegedly moved most of the drugs from Mexico into Tucson, Arizona. From Arizona, the drugs were moved in hidden compartments in cars from Arizona to the Bronx, Washington Heights, and Pennsylvania, according to authorities. From there, traffickers moved the drugs to sell in Suffolk County and the central Massachusetts town of Leominster.

The investigation relied on confidential informants, wiretaps, and physical and video surveillance.

The wiretaps suggest the accused discussed plans to mix other chemicals — including chicken anesthetic, Novocain, nail polish remover, roach killer, fentanyl, and more — in with the heroin "to add to the bulk and value," the press release states.

"During bail arguments," the release said, "it was also alleged that traffickers used people addicted to heroin as human guinea pigs to test the quality of the cut heroin, flagrantly disregarding whether the laced heroin would kill them or not."

You can view the criminal indictment in full at the link.

In addition to the drugs listed above, authorities also seized 300 grams of cocaine, two semi-automatic handguns (including one inscribed with a drug cartel’s insignia) and eight vehicles (four of which contained sophisticated concealed compartments, or “traps,” designed for the purpose of smuggling narcotics).

“Opioid abuse is at epidemic levels in Massachusetts and across the North East,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Ferguson said in the release. “Heroin is causing deaths across the Commonwealth in record numbers and DEA is committed to aggressively pursuing Drug Trafficking Organizations who are coming from out of state to distribute this poison across Massachusetts in order to profit and destroy people's lives and wreak havoc in our communities. This investigation would not have been a success without the continued commitment of our local, state and federal law enforcement partners.”

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