Pill-Filled Dog Toy Found On Hell's Kitchen Drug Dealer: Cops

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Don't fetch that.

A Hell's Kitchen drug dealer tossed a dog-toy stuffed with opioids into a city street when police arrived at his luxury Hell's Kitchen home to arrest him Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Aaron Sanchez, 31, was arrested about 8:30 p.m. at Mercedes House, a luxury apartment building on West 54th Street near 11th Avenue, after a months-long investigation during which he sold undercover cops drugs, guns and ammo, authorities announced Friday.

Sanchez believed he was about to sell a client 1,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills — which were actually fentanyl — but instead was met by drug enforcement agents from the Manhattan District Attorney's office who put him under arrest along with the NYPD and federal agents, said prosecutors.

That's when Sanchez tried to toss the dog toy near a parked car, prosecutors said.

Agents also found 10 more pills, a scale, a money counter and rounds of ammunition in his apartment, prosecutors said.

"This drug and gun dealer operated out of luxury apartments in the heart of mid-town,” said Tim Foley of New York's division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The rising threat of drug overdoses and violence is being fueled by profiteers like Sanchez."

Sanchez first met cops in August at his former home — the penthouse of the luxury Atelier Condo tower on West 42nd Street near 12th Avenue — where he sold them 1,000 fentanyl pills and a piece of crystal meth for $6,000, prosecutors said.

Undercover cops returned in October to buy 400 more pills, a Taurus handgun and two magazines — hidden in a dog food bag — for a total of $3,600, according to prosecutors.

Months later, on March 3, an agent met Sanchez near his 54th Street building to hand over $1,200 for a Sig Sauer firearm and 54 cartridges, authorities said.

Sanchez now faces charges including criminal drug possession, criminal sale of a controlled substance, as well as a third-degree gun sale charge, prosecutors said.