The DEA announced today that they had arrested ten people in connection with a Fort Lee, NJ heroin mill which allegedly was distributing throughout the tri-state area, including, in particular, Park Slope. They seized five and a half pounds of heroin from the mill (worth $1.5 million), $50,000 in cash, as well as 100,000 glassine envelopes which had brand names such as "Spring Break," "Roger Dat," "True Love," and "LeBron James."
In the past, there have been several heroin mill busts throughout Washington Heights, but recently, the dealers had switched things up: investigators discovered that they would use a van to pick up heroin mill workers in Washington Heights and take them across the GW Bridge to Fort Lee to a home in a suburban neighborhood, right down the street from an elementary school.
Worst of all, when they executed their search warrant this week, they discovered that children were in the same room as the drugs. When they raided the home, they found "a woman stamping brand names on glassine bags at the kitchen table while her preschool-aged daughter sat nearby eating breakfast and watching cartoons on television."
In the course of the investigation, authorities also discovered that the a dealer would ride on a brightly colored three-wheeled motorcycle to distribute the drugs around Park Slope—they were witnessed tossing hundreds of glassines of heroin into the car windows of clients, taking an envelope full of cash in return, and speeding off. Prosecutors say that when they arrested one such dealer, they found a motorcycle helmet with “sin city” emblazoned on it—"sin city" was one of the names of the heroin brand names.
