DEA seizes $12 million worth of heroin in NYC drug den, nabs ring leader and others
NEW YORK — DEA agents busted a major drug trafficker and seized more than $12 million worth of heroin, 1,000 fentanyl pills and $200,000 in cash from a Queens drug mill, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Luis Martinez is accused of running the sprawling drug packaging mill in Ridgewood, where he employed Sofia Medina, Maria Altagracia Berroa and Jacqueline Sosa de Espinal to help run his large-scale trafficking operation, Manhattan prosecutors said.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan described the setup as “a highly sophisticated heroin mill in the heart of Queens.”
“This drug den contained nearly $12 million dollars’ worth of narcotics and was like an opioid landmine capable of dispersing hundreds of thousands of heroin doses throughout (the) Northeast,” Donovan said in a statement.
Agents arrested Martinez walking down the street in Ridgewood around 4 p.m. Monday wearing a backpack containing four cell phones and more than $200,000 in cash, according to court filings.
Upon arriving at the second-floor apartment on Forest Ave. near Bleecker St., one of Martinez’s employees answered the door. Authorities found Sosa de Espinal and Berroa hiding in the bathroom with the lights off.
Two bedrooms in the apartment were set up for packaging heroin, prosecutors said. In one, agents found 31 kilogram-sized brick packages wrapped in duct tape allegedly containing heroin. They also discovered an additional 6 kilos of loose powder inside plastic containers and bags.
Glassine envelopes emblazoned with various brand names, like “Red Scorpion,” “The Hulk,” “Universal,” “Hard Target,” “Last Dragon, “Dope” and “Venom” were also discovered in the den.
“The shuttering of an assembly line able to pump out millions of street-ready heroin packages and deadly counterfeit fentanyl pills will save lives across New York City and our entire region,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said in a statement.
“The volume of lethal drugs flooding our city is causing a record number of overdose deaths. This investigation succeeded because of the expertise and cooperation of our federal and local partners.”
Martinez is charged with operating as a major trafficker, criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminally using drug paraphernalia and other related charges.
His employees face charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance and using drug paraphernalia.
— New York Daily News
Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she’ll allow Chicago restaurants to serve more people starting Thursday
CHICAGO — Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she will allow Chicago bars and restaurants to expand the number of people they serve indoors.
But the city will continue to keep tighter restrictions on restaurants than the looser rules allowed elsewhere by the state.
Lightfoot’s plan, which will go into effect Thursday, will allow bars and restaurants to expand to 25% capacity or 50 people per room or floor. Currently, it’s a maximum of 25 people.
Critics say the city’s relaxed rules don’t go far enough and will benefit relatively few businesses: large restaurants with multiple large rooms.
“This doesn’t help the vast majority of restaurants and it’s unfair,” said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Fulton Market Association and coordinator of the Chicago Restaurants Coalition, which formed in September to help members navigate the pandemic.
State rules allow restaurants to seat parties of 10 or fewer people and they should be spaced 6 feet apart, but Lightfoot has taken it slow due to concerns about reversing the city’s progress in lowering COVID-19 cases.
City officials said they will expand indoor capacity to 40% once the city reaches better figures in COVID-19 cases per day, test positivity, emergency department visits for coronavirus-like illness, and total number of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. They will expand indoor capacity to 50% after the city records two weeks of maintaining those levels.
The hang-up right now is the number of COVID-19 cases per day. Chicago’s seven-day rolling average for cases is at 466, and city health officials would like to see that figure drop to fewer than 400.
— Chicago Tribune
Kodak Black offers to pay the tuition of slain FBI agents' kids
MIAMI — Kodak Black is trying to do the right thing since being sprung from prison.
Known for his charitable endeavors from behind bars, the rapper now is paying it forward as a free man.
Black, real name Bill K. Kapri, has reached out to the family of two FBI agents who were fatally shot Feb. 2 while serving a search warrant at at the Sunrise apartment of a child-pornography suspect.
The "Tunnel Vision" singer says he will pay the college tuition for the children of the slain officers — Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, his lawyer Bradford Cohen confirmed to the Miami Herald.
Alfin was the father of a 3-year-old child; Schwartzenberger had two children, ages 4 and 9.
"Kodak has always tried to take care of the kids who lose their parents. He has a real passion to support kids that are put in bad positions, due to no fault of their own," Cohen said. "Some of his charity is reported on and some of it is not, and some he does anonymously. He sends his condolences to the families of the fallen FBI agents, and knows how tough it is to lose a loved one. He encourages others to help support charities that give to children in need."
Black was released from a Kentucky prison after his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump last month. The 23-year-old Pompano Beach native had been sentenced in 2019 to 46 months in prison on federal weapons charges after admitting to falsifying information on federal forms to buy four firearms.
The gunman involved in the FBI agents' deaths, David Lee Huber, 55, took his own life before he could be arrested.
— The Miami Herald
