Authorities say they seized $30 million worth of heroin Saturday in a Bronx drug bust.
Investigators say they questioned Ramon Rivas and Jose Rodriguez, who were sitting in a Jeep Cherokee on Sedgewick Avenue on Saturday afternoon. Authorities then searched the Jeep, where they found 48 pounds of heroin hidden in the trunk.
Authorities also searched Rivas’ Sedgewick Avenue home, where they found 31 pounds of heroin in a compartment in the wall, an additional 13 pounds in the floor of a closet and $50,000 in cash. A search of Rodriguez’s storage unit turned up another 9 pounds of heroin, officials say.
New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton praised investigators for efforts to stop heroin distribution in the city.
“This seizure prevented a staggering amount of heroin from flooding our neighborhoods with this highly addictive narcotic,” he said in a statement.
DEA special agent in charge James Hunt likened heroin to “a monster in a horror movie.”
“Just when you think it is gone, it re-emerges with a vengeance,” he said in a statement.
Rivas and Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, officials said.
