NYC's Largest-Ever Fentanyl Bust Turns Up Enough Drugs To Kill 32 Million People, Officials Say

QUEENS, NY – The largest fentanyl seizure ever in New York City – enough to provide 32 million lethal overdoses – has been found in a Queens apartment, city investigators said Monday.

More than 64 kilograms of the deadly drug were seized during a search at a home at 85-15 120th Street in Kew Gardens on Aug. 1, Bridget Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutor, said. It was found packed in four suitcases and a purse alongside another 22 kilograms of fentanyl that had been mixed with other narcotics, five kilograms of heroin and six kilograms of cocaine, she said.

Altogether, there were 97 packages of narcotics covered in colored plastic wrap and tape, prosecutors said.

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Drug enforcement agents had followed two people back to the apartment after seeing them collect a shopping bag full of drugs from a man in the parking lot of a Walmart in Manahawkin in New Jersey, Brennan said.

Rogelio Alvarado-Robles and Blanca Flores-Solis were both charged with several counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance.

A few weeks later, another 25 kilograms of fentanyl was found in The Bronx after investigators watched a suspected drug exchange outside a Home Depot in Woodbridge, NJ, and followed a car from there back into the city, Brennan said.

Agents stopped the car at W. 161st St at the Major Deegan Expressway on Sept. 5 and found a duffle bag that held 25 brick-shaped blocks of the drug, Brennan said. Edwin Guzman and Manuel Rivera-Santana were charged with conspiracy and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that 50 times stronger than heroin and is often mixed with narcotics. It's considered a major contributor to the surging amount of drug overdose deaths – there were 1,374 in New York City in 2016, more than ever before. It's estimated two milligrams of fentanyl is enough to kill.

"The sheer volume of fentanyl pouring into the city is shocking," said Brennan.

"It's not only killing a record number of people in New York City, but the city is used as a hub of regional distribution for a lethal substance that is taking thousands of lives throughout the Northeast."

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said, "This seizure goes down in history as a milestone in the ongoing fight against fentanyl."

Lead images courtesy of the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor