Thousands Of Fake Oxycodone Pills Seized In NYC Busts

NEW YORK — Authorities seized thousands of potentially deadly counterfeit prescription pills worth up to $600,000 in two New York City drug busts last week.

A pair of investigations yielded four arrests, two kilograms of heroin and about 20,000 fake oxycodone pills that are suspected to contain fentanyl, a dangerous opioid that has played a role in many overdose deaths, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office said Monday.

The pills, which can sell for as much $30 each on the street, are believed to have come from Mexico, the office said. Officials have seen a rash of cases involving huge amounts of counterfet pills — and New Yorkers can risk their lives by taking them, Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said.

"The ingredients and potency are all unknown, and minuscule amounts of fentanyl can cause overdose or death," Brennan said in a statement. "Consuming a counterfeit pill is akin to playing Russian Roulette."

Authorities found the bulk of the pills on Feb. 7 in a storage space above a cellphone store on West Kingsbridge Road in The Bronx's Fordham Manor neighborhood, Brennan's office said.

Agents and officers found Andres Reyes-Martinez, a suspected narcotics trafficker, that evening in the store near the Kingsbridge Armory talking with its purported owner, Jesus Garcia, officials said.

Authorities found 14 bags of about 1,000 pills each in the second-floor space, along with a pair of duct-tape-wrapped packages of what appeared to be heroin, the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office said.

Reyes-Martinez and Garcia, both of The Bronx, each face four counts each of criminal possession of a controlled substance, officials said.

About 6,000 pills were seized on Feb. 3 after authorities stopped a livery car carrying David Espinal and Victor Almanzar-Cardenas near First Avenue and East 49th Street, the prosecutor's office said.

Espinal, of Manhattan, refused to be handcuffed but authorities nonetheless got a large object from of his pocket, which turned out to be a plastic bag holding the pills, officials said. A laboratory analysis confirmed the pills contained fentanyl, the prosecutor's office said. Officials say they were blue and had markings similar to oxycodone.

Espinal has been charged with resisting arrest as well as three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, while Almanzar-Cardenas, of Boston, faces two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Fentanyl was traced to more New York City overdose deaths last year than any other drug. It's up to 100 times stronger than morphine and has been found mixed with other drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

"Traffickers are mass producing pseudo-pharmaceutical pills made of heroin, fentanyl and other illicit drugs in makeshift laboratories throughout New York City," Ray Donovan, a special agent in charge with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said in a statement. "These pills attract users because they are more convenient and less conspicuous; but users should beware because they are unregulated and lethal."

(Lead image: Authorities seized thousands of counterfeit oxycodone pills in two drug busts last week. Photos from the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office)