Kilos Of Fentanyl Found In Car During Bayside Traffic Stop: DA

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — A traffic stop in Bayside last week led police to find two kilos of fentanyl, according to a new report by the Queens District Attorney.

On Thursday, Dec. 1st, officers pulled over Luis Navarro Gonzalez, 26, near Northern Boulevard and 204th Street after he apparently made a right turn without signaling. Juan Esquer, 48, was sitting in the passenger seat of the car at the time of the traffic stop, records show.

Police then searched through the car, under a court-authorized search warrant, and found two kilos of fentanyl enfolded in green saran wrap and hidden in the passenger's side air bag, according to the DA.

A police lab later confirmed that the drugs found in the car were fentanyl; a deadly synthetic opioid that's prompted a record number of drug overdose deaths in the past several years.

"Fentanyl has played a key role in the dramatic increase we’ve seen in fatal drug overdoses in Queens," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Katz's office revealed that 391 Queens residents died from drug overdoses in 2020, a nearly 50 percent increase from the year before. Of those deaths, 71 percent were related to fentanyl, Katz said.

"Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that must be kept off our streets," she said in a statement this week, when charges against Navarro Gonzalez and Esquer were announced.

The pair were hit with three criminal charges of possessing a controlled substance, and a traffic violation. If convicted in court on Feb. 1st, Navarro Gonzalez and Esquer both face up to 20 years in prison.

News of the fentanyl bust comes shortly after the city opened two first-of-their-kind supervised injection sites in Manhattan.

The locations are aimed at saving lives by allowing people to inject themselves with drugs in a safe environment, according to the New York Times; since the sites opened, 15 people have reportedly been saved by workers who intervened as overdoses were happening.