BY EMILY DAVENPORT
A west Bronx man was
charged for allegedly trafficking
opioids and methamphetamine
from his home,
officials announced on Monday,
Oct. 5.
Juan Perez-Pichardo, 50,
was arrested on Aug. 13 and
later indicted on charges
of Criminal Possession of a
Controlled Substance in the
First, Second, Third and
Fifth Degrees and Criminally
Using Drug Paraphernalia
in the Second Degree.
“The excellent investigative
work of attorneys and
law enforcement officers undoubtedly
saved lives. We
seized large quantities of a
substance with highly lethal
potential – a combination
of highly potent stimulants
mixed with powerful narcotics
– and all the equipment
needed to put 50,000 stamped
bags filled with it out on the
street for sale,” said Special
Narcotics Prosecutor
Bridget G. Brennan.
According to court documents,
on Aug. 13 members
of DEA’s New York Organized
Crime Drug Enforcement
Strike Force, Group
Z-13, followed out an authorized
search of Perez Pichardo’s
basement apartment
at 2400 Walton Avenue. They
entered through the rear
courtyard area of the apartment
building and observed
a sign posted on the door of
the target apartment indicating
a storage/maintenance
area while Perez-Pichardo
was inside the apartment.
During the search, agents
allegedly uncovered a hidden
compartment carved into the
wall of a shower area, located
adjacent to the kitchen, that
contained multiple brickshaped
packages of a brown
powdery substance. Another
brick-shaped package
wrapped in a comforter was
Photos courtesy of the DEA’s New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force
found in a bedroom closet. In
total, nearly four pounds of
suspected narcotics were allegedly
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recovered, as well as
10 bottles of liquid ketamine
(a general anesthetic), quinine
(an anti-malaria agent)
and $1,000 cash.
Testing by the NYPD lab
allegedly determined that
the packages contained a
mixture of heroin, fentanyl
and tramadol and methamphetamine,
while a third
brick contained heroin, fentanyl
and tramadol. The
combination of opioids with
a stimulant could easily
cause an unsuspecting user
to overdose.
The apartment also allegedly
contained all of the
equipment necessary to mix
the substances, including a
kilo press, scales, grinder,
ink pads, stamps and thousands
of empty individualdose
glassine envelopes.
The drugs seized could have
yielded at least 50,000 individual
doses worth approximately
$500,000 on the street.
Perez-Pichardo was arrested
that day.
“With a half million dollars’
worth of narcotics hidden
throughout his apartment,
Perez-Pichardo is
alleged to have had enough
stashed for fifty thousand
potential lethal overdoses.
These are deadly drugs,
made even deadlier by the
substances these traffickers
were allegedly adding to this
“home brew” of narcotics,”
said Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special
Agent in Charge of HSI
New York. “HSI’s partnership
with DEA, NYPD and
all the Strike Force partners
allows for a continuous flow
of information in investigations
which in turn takes
deadly drugs of the street and
out of the hands of our city’s
most vulnerable.
Cops fi nd drug den
in Bronx home
West Bronx man charged after search
uncovers lethal mix of drugs
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