Fatal heroin overdoses rise in NYC

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The northwest Bronx appears to be immune to a spike in heroin-related deaths and overdoses that has gripped the city, according to a new report from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

But recent arrests and the prevailing consensus at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) suggest relatively affluent neighborhoods like Riverdale are prime real estate for drug dealers seeking to hide their illicit product.

“The drug operations in the Riverdale area mainly have consisted of heroin mills and stash houses — which are strategically hidden by drug trafficking organizations in safe, quiet, middle- to upper-income neighborhoods where they feel safe storing and packaging millions of dollars of illegal drugs that will be sent to distribution cells throughout the tri-state area,” Agent Erin McKenzie-Mulvey, a DEA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Last October, an apartment on a quiet street near Van Cortlandt Park was the scene of a drug bust that netted over 68 pounds of cocaine, $1.6 million in cash and two loaded semi-automatic pistols. Authorities believed that 30-year-old Juan Rojas was trafficking about 50 kilograms of cocaine per month out of an apartment at 244 Fieldston Terrace, near Horace Mann School. 

Agent McKenzie-Mulvey said an increase in law enforcement in the northwest Bronx is a form of “compliment” since “drug traffickers’ aim is to conceal their stash houses in crime free, posh, family-oriented neighborhoods.”

“The DEA and the NYPD have successfully identified major drug organizations operating in and around the Riverdale area and shut them down,” she added. “We have sent a message to drug traffickers that residents and law enforcement won’t tolerate drug trafficking in Riverdale.”

Booming trade

Nevertheless, the city’s drug trade is booming enough to prompt a whopping 41 percent increase in drug overdoses from prescription painkillers and heroin, according to an Aug. 28 report from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Bronx had the highest rate of overdoses in the city, at 8.8 incidents per 100,000 residents.

Tanisia Morris, Health Department, Overdoses, Heroin, Cocaine, Drugs, Prescription Drugs, Opioid, Drug Ring, Riverdale, Crime, Drug Busts
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