A total of 10 people were charged in an 89-count indictment on Wednesday for allegedly selling heroin cut with ketamine, an animal tranquilizer, and cocaine, according to the state attorney general’s office.
They were accused of selling the drugs throughout New York, including in Queens and Brooklyn.
“Heroin is killing Americans at an alarming rate,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said in a statement. “The 10 arrests made this morning on heroin-related charges in New York City is the precision policing that saves lives.”
Police seized more than 600 glassines of controlled substances during the investigation, dubbed “Operation Times Up.”
That moniker, according to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, was stamped on each glassine as a calling card of sorts.
The ring’s leader, Christopher Quinones, of Brooklyn, was charged with criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance with the group, as well as 40 separate times alone.
Police seized a bag of heroin with nearly 2 ounces inside as he tried to flee from his room, according to Schneiderman’s office.
He was held without bail on Monday, according to Schneiderman’s office. Attorney information for Quinones was not immediately available.
