Fentanyl Bust Near NYC Daycare: 40 Lbs Of Deadly Drugs Seized: City

NEW YORK CITY — A drug mill had 40 pounds of suspected fentanyl stashed just blocks away from a Bronx daycare where a child died from an overdose, authorities said.

Cops and federal agents raided a Heath Avenue home late Tuesday and connected it to a mountain of fentanyl valued at $1.5 million, prosecutors said.

They also arrested Herrera Vargas, 42, on a slew of drug charges, including operating as a major trafficker, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

The bust unfolded six blocks away from Divino Niño Daycare, where a 1-year-old boy died and three other children were hospitalized after being exposed to fentanyl Sept. 15, authorities said.

"The conduct charged is shockingly brazen, especially in a city still grieving the overdose death of a young child who lost his life at a nearby daycare center," said Bridget G. Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutors.

Vargas is accused of ferrying roughly 30 pounds of fentanyl through the subway and his Bronx neighborhood in a rolling suitcase, prosecutors said.

Agents stopped Vargas with this suitcase Sept. 26 as he walked to a Heath Avenue apartment building from the Kingsbridge Road subway stop, authorities said. He ran off, leaving both the agents and his suitcase, which contained 13 kilogram bricks of suspected fentanyl, behind, prosecutors said.

But authorities spotted him about two hours later walking with another suitcase, prosecutors said. They were able to stop and arrest him this time, and found 50,000 glassines wrapped together into 25 larger packages inside the suitcase, authorities said.

A search of Vargas' apartment, which had its windows tape up with plastic bags, yielded more suspected fentanyl and supplies used to package drugs, prosecutors said.

"Herrera Vargas took danger one step further and wheeled over 40 pounds of fentanyl around the city and on the subway with no regard to public safety," said Frank Tarentino, the DEA's special agent-in-charge for New York.