From the outside, they are ordinary apartments.
But dozens of homes in New York City have been turned into fentanyl factories – producing millions of dollars worth of the deadly drug.
Now authorities are lifting the lid on signs that a unit has been taken over by gangs, following the death of 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici at a Bronx daycare that has been turned into one of the factories.
A string of busts has recently revealed that as well as the apartment and daycare, a pizzeria has been turned into a drug factory.
Bridget Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor for the city of New York, told The Post that dealers look for the least dangerous places. “The goal is not to stand out,” he said. “Sometimes, the workers at this fentanyl factory are in and out all the time. Apartment buildings are good for that because coming and going doesn’t attract attention.”
Inside, sometimes behind reinforced front doors, workers earn up to $1,000 a day, in cash, to handle a drug so deadly that ingesting just two milligrams (equivalent to 10- to 15-grains of table salt) can be fatal.
This is how drug dealers turn an ordinary apartment into a fentanyl factory, capable of producing millions of dollars of the deadly drug all the time. Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who was held in the arms of his mother Zoila Dominici, died from exposure to fentanyl at the Bronx day care center he and his father, Otionel Feliz, trusted with his safety. Unbeknownst to them, it was used as a pill factory. Otoniel Feliz/Instagram
They mix the man-made opiates with other substances, such as heroin or cocaine, dilute their potency with baking soda, baby laxatives or caffeine, and package the pills and powder for distribution to dealers in and around New York City.
Ideally, dens face highways that easily lead to drug-busting destinations and reduce the risk of traversing city streets with illicit cargo in the trunk.
The fentanyl arrived, pressed hard in kilo-weight blocks. Sometimes, the block is covered in grease to avoid detection.
One of dozens of fentanyl factories is at 2800 Heath Avenue in the Bronx, where authorities busted a pill factory operating in one of the apartments there. Google Maps A glass table, often located in the bedroom provides an ideal surface for cutting drugs. Air filters and air conditioners, however, do little to keep the deadly powder out of the air. DEA drug dealers were putting pills into capsules on this table when the police raided the pill factory.DEA
Once broken up, with grease inevitably splattered on the floor, the fentanyl is broken up and put into a coffee grinder to be ground into powder – meaning the hive will be filled with burning grinders when the police arrive.
Once turned into a fine powder, the deadly substance can be mixed with cocaine or heroin and cut with baking powder, baby laxatives or caffeine powder. The powder can be packed in a glass envelope and sold.
Or they can be dumped into a pill press — a tabletop machine, available online — that uses 1.5 tons of pressure to press as many as 5,000 pills an hour. Ideally, this is done in a sound-buffered basement because pill presses are as loud as a jackhammer.
This is the commotion found by the police in a raid on a pill factory. The DEA’s special agent in charge in New York, Frank Tarentino, said the factory was “not a sanitary area.” DEA tape and glass envelopes are used to package drugs that will be distributed to dealers and enter the bloodstream of the destined addict. DEA At a Bronx fentanyl plant, police seized $1 million worth of individual doses, in envelopes wrapped in unused lottery tickets, and others stamped with logos like “Hiroshima” and “anthrax.” DEA
Frank Tarentino, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York division, told The Post, “These are sparsely furnished apartments with bare necessities.
“Normally, there will be sofas, double beds – sometimes, when the delivery is big, work will be done around the clock. That’s when people sleep between shifts instead of leaving. Maybe the PlayStation is already set up. They need something to occupy their time when they are not grinding.
Manufacturing often takes place in the bedroom, while Mr. Big operates from the living room.
Fentanyl was seized from a factory where workers were accused of throwing the drug at law enforcement in an attempt to fend them off. DEA Heroin can be cheaply added with the addition of fentanyl. Unfortunately, addicts are not informed about this. Fentanyl is often the core OD drug.DEA
“Usually there will be a glass table, so they can see all the particles under bright lights,” says Tarentino “The windows are darkened with black trash bags, so no one can see what they’re doing.
“There will be powder everywhere, pill presses, takeout. You see the metro card on the table; they are used to scoop up drugs and move them.
“You always see glass envelopes [that the drugs are sold in] and tape to keep it closed.”
Most pills are stamped, Brennan said.
Dealers put a stamp on the bag or envelope in which they sell powder or pills. These are some that were found in the raid on the factory. DEA Other fentanyl products are marked “Coronavirus”, while others mention former President Trump. A dealer who sells his drugs outside of McDonald’s uses the Golden Arches to identify his product.DEA
“One we’re looking at is I-95. That is the highway where many of these goods are transported to different locations. There’s a Trump stamp and another with the Golden Arches, and the words ‘I love it.’ That’s for a guy who sells drugs in front of McDonald’s.”
And not only the medicines found in this mission. Sometimes there was cash, and, in at least one instance, agents found a baby sleeping in a bedroom.
The air conditioner runs constantly in an effort to keep the air clean. An air purifier is placed on a table sprinkled with drugs. But usually, that obvious effort is futile.
A stash seized at a functioning fentanyl factory in an apartment at 2800 Heath Avenue in the Bronx. DEA Fentanyl pills, as shown in the photo, are produced on machines that use 1.5 tons of pressure per pill, producing about 5,000 per hour, and are as strong as a jackhammer when they press their poisonous product.DEA
The danger is not just to pill makers. “We have a case,” Brennan said, “where [the criminals] throwing drugs at the arriving investigators.” Being hit in the face with large quantities of fentanyl can be fatal.
There can be a touch that approaches homey.
“People wear K95 masks thinking that the mask will protect them from fentanyl in the air; they probably won’t,” Brennan said. “But I remember seeing a factory where the masks were all hung with people’s names.”
Agents and police have also found inspirational art, including a sign that reads “You can do it,” propped up on a shelf above cold medicine and asthma inhalers. Next to the plastic bag of white powder and drug bricks is a mug with a cartoon picture declaring “I love SPK.”
And, reminds Tarentino, the fact that professional laboratory equipment – such as beakers, flasks, filters and scales – is lying around is no reason to believe that the factory is a place where dangerous drugs are handled with medical-grade care.
“There’s no quality control,” said Tarentino, who has seen more than his share of fentanyl-related drug deaths. “It’s a science experiment that goes wrong every day.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
