Drug Mill Busted Near NYC Elementary School, Officials Say

NEW YORK — A Bronx man could be bound for detention after authorities found $1 million worth of drugs in and around his apartment near an elementary school.

Law-enforcement officers seized a cache of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine from Wadely Taveras's Andrew Avenue North apartment that doubled as a drug packaging mill, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office said.

Agents caught Taveras, 35, leaving the home — which is on the same block as a private elementary school and multiple daycare centers — carrying three kilograms of fentanyl in a black packpack Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Authorities later returned with a search warrant and found three more kilograms of the dangerous opioid in the master bedroom closet, along with 200 grams of cocaine and 100 grams each of meth and heroin all stuffed in plastic bags, the prosecutor's office said.

Officials say the drugs were going to be distributed in New York City. Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force also discovered glassines, grinders, a scale and a kilogram press were also discovered in the bedroom, according to the office.

Taveras was arraigned in Manhattan Wednesday night on eight counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of criminally using drug paraphernalia, the prosecutor's office said. A judge set his bail at $200,000, officials say.