Two people were arrested after federal and local law enforcement agents found more than 25 pounds of suspected fentanyl and cocaine in a Bronx apartment last week, NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan announced Monday.
Agents discovered the drugs — and $100,000 in cash — when they were executing an unrelated fugitive arrest warrant at a sixth-floor apartment inside 536 Kappock St. in Spuyten Duyvil on May 8.
“New York City continues to be a regional hub of narcotics trafficking,” Brennan said. “Our office and law enforcement partners must be ever vigilant to staunch the flow of lethal drugs like fentanyl. Close collaboration between local, state and federal law enforcement enabled the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force and the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force to effectively intercept deadly drugs before they hit the streets.”
How law enforcement found the stash
Officers with the U.S. Marshals NY/NJFugitive Task Force entered the Kappock Street location at approximately 6 a.m. on May 8 to execute the arrest warrant when they came across a huge trove of illegal drugs and drug packaging equipment.
Aracely Ortiz, the 43-year-old woman who was the subject of the arrest warrant, along with a male individual, 36-year-old Jonathan Corona, were inside the apartment at the time. Both were subsequently arrested. Corona is reported to have lived at the address where the search warrant was executed, officials said.
Later that day, at approximately 1:35 p.m., the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force along with help from investigators from the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office got to work on seizing the narcotics during a court-authorized search of the two-bedroom apartment, officials said.
Inside the first bedroom, the team allegedly discovered a glass-topped table holding numerous glassine envelopes filled with fentanyl, as well as a scale and other narcotics packaging paraphernalia. A safe inside a bedroom closet allegedly concealed three brick-shaped white packages of fentanyl and two brick-shaped black packages of cocaine, authorities said.
The search continued into the second bedroom, where agents and officers recovered a money counter, approximately $100,000 cash, a large bag containing six brick-shaped packages of cocaine and three glass jars containing fentanyl, according to authorities.
Ten additional packages of a yet-to-be identified substance were also recovered in the apartment.
Field test results on the narcotics recovered from the safe were positive for the presence of fentanyl and cocaine, but the results of DEA laboratory analysis of the drugs seized at the apartment are pending.
“These arrests and the seizure of over 25 pounds of fentanyl and cocaine reflects the partnership the DEA has with our federal and local law enforcement partners when working together,” DEA New York Division Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said. “I commend the quick action of the U.S. Marshals Service Regional Fugitive Task Force and our DEA New York Drug Enforcement Task Force in responding so quickly in removing these illicit drugs off our streets.”
Brennan’s office is charging both Corona and Ortiz with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Ortiz faces additional charges in New Jersey.
