10 MARCH 3, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Three busted in raid of Woodside heroin, fentanyl mill
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Members of the New York Drug Enforcement
Task Force smashed a large-scale
heroin and fentanyl mill in Woodside
Tuesday night, Feb. 22.
Three people were busted as two apartments
were raided at 51-66 48th St., a small residential
enclave between Calvary Cemetery, the Long
Island Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway.
The NYDETF recovered more than five kilograms
of narcotics from the Woodside building,
worth an estimated street value of more than
$1.5 million, after a court-authorized search
of the basement and second-floor apartments,
according to New York City’s Special Narcotics
Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan
As agents and officers entered the premises,
Argeliz Nunez, Pablo Rodriguez and Tiesha
Cruz, all Queens residents, were seen leaving
through the front door of the basement apartment.
They were searched and agents recovered
a loaded .22-caliber firearm from Rodriguez’s
pants pocket.
Inside the basement apartment, a small room
off the main living area contained a table with a
large quantity of loose narcotics in powder form
on top, along with gallon-sized ziplock bags of additional
quantities of narcotics in powder form.
Also present was a cardboard box filled with
thousands of individual dose glassine envelopes
The apartments where members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force smashed a largescale
heroin and fentanyl mill. Screenshot via Google Maps
filled with suspected heroin/fentanyl. Two brickshaped
boxes containing suspected narcotics
sat on a table and the floor. Mail addressed to
Rodriguez was found in the basement apartment.
A search of the second-floor apartment uncovered
a table inside a bedroom with five ziplock
bags of narcotics in loose powder form and drug
residue on the tabletop. The apartment contained
glassine envelopes stamped with many different
brand names, such as “Black Widow,” “Asylum”
and “Gucci.” Mail addressed to Nunez was present
in the second-floor apartment.
Agents seized four vehicles allegedly associated
with members of the Woodside drug
trafficking organization. A 9mm handgun was
recovered from a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.
Rodriguez and Cruz were arraigned in Manhattan
Criminal Court.
Arraignment for Nunez is pending, according
to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
POLICE BEAT
104TH PRECINCT
(RIDGEWOOD, GLENDALE, MIDDLE VILLAGE AND
MASPETH )
Two suspects attack elderly man and
steal $1,000 in Middle Village
Police from the 104th Precinct are searching for two thieves who attacked an
elderly man in Middle Village and made off with $1,000 in cash.
On Tuesday, Feb. 22, at around 4 p.m., two men approached a 79-year-old man
near 81st Street and Eliot Avenue, forcibly knocked him to the ground and took
his wallet with $1,000 inside, according to police. The suspects then allegedly fl ed
west on Eliot Avenue.
The victim sustained minor lacerations from the incident and was treated at
the scene, according to NYPD.
Police released a video of the suspects entering a nearby store.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s
Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at
crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages
are strictly confi dential.
107TH PRECINCT
(FRESH MEADOWS, CUNNINGHAM HEIGHTS AND
HILLTOP VILLAGE)
Truck driver fatally strikes Hollis
woman in Fresh Meadows
An 83-year-old Hollis woman was struck and killed near Cunningham Park in
Fresh Meadows on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 24.
Police from the 107th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a pedestrian struck
at the corner of Union Turnpike and 193rd Street and discovered the victim
unconscious and unresponsive lying on the ground with trauma to her body.
EMS responded and transported Cecilia Armesto to Queens General Hospital
in Jamaica where she later died, police said.
A preliminary investigation revealed that a 72-year-old man operating a
2019 Freightliner FedEx truck made a right turn from southbound 193rd Street
to westbound Union Turnpike when he struck Armesto while she was crossing
on the west side of the intersection, according to the NYPD. The truck driver
remained on the scene.
There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing by the NYPD Highway
District’s Collision Investigation Squad.
114TH PRECINCT
(ASTORIA, LONG ISLAND CITY, WOODSIDE AND
JACKSON HEIGHTS)
Cops arrest alleged Queens hammer
attacker who brutally assaulted
woman at subway stop
Police arrested a man they say attacked a woman with a hammer at a Queens
subway station last week.
Cops cuff ed 57-year-old William Blount Sunday morning and charged him
with assaulting and robbing a woman of the same age at the Queens Plaza station
in Long Island City on Thursday, Feb. 24.
Blount allegedly kicked the victim down the subway stairs at the station and
whacked her in the head with the tool several times before grabbing her bag and
bolting at 11:22 p.m. on Feb. 24.
He then allegedly fl ed the scene on foot at Queens Plaza South.
A surveillance camera caught the entire grizzly act on tape.
The victim was left with a fractured skull, a bleeding brain, and other cuts on
her head, and paramedics rushed her in critical condition to NY-Presbyterian/
Weill Cornell Medical Center, according to police.
Police got a hold of Blount on the morning of Feb. 27 and slapped him with
charges of attempted murder, robbery and assault.
The suspect lived in a homeless shelter on William Street in Lower Manhattan,
according to cops.
/crimestoppers.nypdonline.org
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