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Bronx Day Care Center Caring More Than Children

A grand jury indicted a mother, daughter and son on drug charges Friday after 7,000 heroin bags and other narcotics were found in a house that held a day care center.

Police last week found drugs including four pounds of a morphine-codeine mixture and the other drugs in several places inside the two-story building in the Sound View section of the Bronx, said New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan. The drugs were worth more than $163,000 on the street, she said.

Rosa Mercado, 52, her son, Ramfis Aquino, 26, both of the Bronx, and her daughter Chastese Mercado, 22, of Bushkill, Pa., are charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Brennan said Aquino was held on $300,000 bail and Rosa and Chastese Mercado were held on $100,000 bail. All face more than 20 years in prison if convicted.

The three pleaded not guilty to all charges.

It was unclear whether children at the day care center were exposed to any drug dealing.

Detectives with search warrants raided the rear living area of the two-story, three bedroom brick house on Feb. 15. Behind night tables and under floor boards they found some 7,000 heroin packed glassine bags, and two plastic bags containing more than eight ounces of loose heroin, Brennan said.

The prosecutor said police also found a bulletproof vest, bulletproof jacket and a box of live bullets.

From an open duffel bag in the kitchen, police recovered two kilograms of an opiate mixture used to make heroin and more than 500 empty glassine envelopes, Brennan said. She said they also found digital scales.

In New York City a kilogram of heroin costs $43,000 to $75,000 on the street, and an ounce of heroin can go for as much as $3,000, Brennan said. She said the 7,000-plus bags of heroin sell for $20 a bag.

SOURCE: NewsDay.com

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Bronx Kingpin Jose Rodriguez Busted 

Jose Rodriguez Nieves, a/k/a “Menor,” a/k/a “Cuba,” was found guilty late Friday of charges related to his leadership of a highly lucrative drug organization responsible for distributing hundreds of kilograms of heroin in the Bronx from 1995 to January 2006.

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge John Gilbride told reporters, “Throughout this operation the DEA and our law enforcement partners identified an organization responsible for importing, packaging and distributing thousands of bags of heroin to be distributed in New York. All those responsible have been placed under arrest and last week the leader of the drug organization had been convicted by members of the same community he was poisoning with heroin.”

According to the evidence at trial: Rodriguez was the principal organizer, leader, and administrator of a drug organization that obtained hundreds of kilograms of heroin from Colombian suppliers in Queens, New York, and then prepared the heroin for distribution in the Bronx. During the ten-year period, Rodrriguez employed over a dozen people to work in heroin “mills” where bags of heroin were prepared, packaged, and delivered to heroin distribution “spots” in the Bronx.

In preparing the heroin, the suspect and his workers mixed the heroin with chemicals including animal tranquilizers to create a potent and addictive drug that became popular with drug addicts and other users in the Bronx. Rodriguez and other members of the drug organization used a number of vehicles with hidden compartments or “traps” to transport the kilograms of heroin within the New York City area.

Specifically, Rodriguez’s heroin was sold in the vicinity of Bryant Avenue in Bronx, New York — where his mother used to own a townhouse in which agents seized ammunition and evidence relating to his heroin organization — and in the vicinity of Vyse Avenue, also in the Bronx.

In the ten years that his organization was in operation, it earned millions of dollars from heroin sales. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement agents and officers seized over $2.7 million in cash, 108 pieces of jewelry worth more than $160,000, and several expensive and antique vehicles.

Rodriguez was convicted of leading and organizing a continuing criminal enterprise (”CCE”), conspiring to distribute heroin, and possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment on the CCE count, and mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years and maximum sentences of life on the heroin conspiracy and distribution counts. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge PRESKA on May 7, 2008.

Other individuals who participated in Rodriguez’s heroin organization were arrested and have subsequently pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking and/or firearms offenses.

Many law enforcement commanders have praised the investigative efforts of the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force — which includes agents and officers of the DEA, New York City Police Department, and New York State Police — for their assistance in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Rodriguez and many members of his organization.

SOURCE: CommonVoice.com

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Bronx Hardware Store Delivery Driver Delivering More Then Hardware

Bronx - District Attorney Robert Johnson announced Thursday that a 30-year-old Bronx man selling illegal drugs while making legitimate deliveries for the hardware store that employed him.

A grand jury has indicted Luis Fernandez, of 1584 East 172nd Street, the Bronx, on two counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 1st degree, a Class A-1 felony offense, four counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd degree, a Class B felony offense, and two counts of Criminally Using Drug Paraphernalia in the 2nd degree, a Class A misdemeanor offense.

Fernandez is facing a maximum sentence of eight to 20 years imprisonment on each count if convicted of the most serious charges, Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the 1st degree. Fernandez, whose bail was set at $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash, was arraigned on the indictment before State Supreme Court Justice Robert Seewald.

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Bronx Couple Arrested For Making Heroin In Their Home

A Bronx couple was arrested Wednesday for allegedly running a makeshift heroin factory.

Investigators with the Bronx Gang Unit discovered nine loaded guns and eight kilos of heroin inside an apartment on Sedgewick Avenue.

Alongside nine millimeter and 40-caliber weapons, police found stamps used to brand $50,000 worth of drugs.

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4 Life Terms 4 The Bronx Hitman

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that CYRIL SMITH, a/k/a “Nicholas Smith,” a/k/a “Nicholas Wright,” a/k/a “Mark Nicholas Smith,” a/k/a “Zero,” was sentenced on Friday afternoon in Manhattan federal court to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment for distributing narcotics and committing three separate contract murders in the Bronx between 1998 and 2000.

SMITH, 31, was convicted on May 30, 2007, following a two-week trial before United States District Judge DENISE L. COTE. Specifically, the jury found SMITH guilty of the murder of JAMAL KITT, on July 5, 1998; the murder of TERRENCE CELESTINE, on July 30, 1998; and the murder of SANFORD Malone, on February 14, 2000. SMITH was also convicted of three counts related to his distribution of “crack” cocaine and other drugs between 1998 and
2005. According to the evidence at trial:

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