Crime & Safety
$1 Million Worth Of Fentanyl Pills Seized At JFK Airport Hotel: Feds
Thousands of pills were found in a John F. Kennedy airport hotel in a bust that led to the arrest of two California men, prosecutors said.
QUEENS — A drug bust a Queens airport hotel uncovered tens of thousands fentanyl pill worth up to $1 million and led to the arrest of two men from California, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Roodolph Pierre-Lys, 33, and Uriel Barajas-Valencia, 50, were arrested Monday at the Hampton Inn near John F. Kennedy Airport, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York City's special narcotics prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan.
“Deadly fentanyl has caused destruction in far too many neighborhoods across this borough and the State,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
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“This lethal drug has also accounted for 76% of all overdose fatalities in Queens County this year.”
Pierr-Lys and Barajas-Valencia were seen carrying a brown box into the Inside the hotel on 135th Avenue near North Conduit Avenue about 11:30 a.m., prosecutors said.
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The officers confronted both men and found that the brown box contained four packages wrapped in cellophane and cloth allegedly carrying blue fentanyl marked “M 30,” Brennan said.
Pierre-Lys and Barajas-Valencia have been charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, said prosecutors.
The full Drug Enforcement Administration laboratory analysis is still pending.
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