Furniture Pieces
Over $4.1 million and three kilograms of heroin were seized in the Bronx.
(Handout) (Handout)Over $4.1 million and three kilograms of heroin were seized in the Bronx.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Authorities arrested three drug dealers accused of smuggling heroin in pieces of household furniture, officials said Tuesday.
Cops grabbed Jorge Pizarro, 41, Nelson DeJesus, 40, and Miguel Angeles, 27, saying they tried to make an end-run around police by secreting more than 6 pounds of heroin in high-quality wooden end tables they transported from Texas and kept in a Bronx storage unit, officials said.
The drugs were stashed in compartments in the tables, officials said.
The cash was also smuggled in the furniture on the return trip, officials said.
(Handout)More than $4.1 million in $20s, $50s, and $100s was also found, city Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
“This investigation demonstrates how lucrative and highly organized the lethal narcotics trade has become, ” Brennan said. “The potential toll on human lives represented by this amount of drug money, carefully packaged and hidden in hydraulic compartments for interstate traffickers, cannot be measured.”
Drug investigators from the Special Narcotics Prosecutors office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Homeland Security arrested Pizarro and his two cohorts Saturday night as they unloaded the heavy furniture from a unit they rented at Secure Self Storage on Zerega Ave. near Bruckner Blvd. in Unionport.
The drugs were stashed in compartments in the end tables, officials said.
(Handout)Cops cuffed the trio after they loaded the furniture onto a U-Haul truck, officials said. They also had a Dodge Caravan with them.
On Monday, investigators executed search warrants on the two vehicles, finding the furniture and drugs in the U-Haul, officials said.
Cops also found a secret compartment in the Caravan and a bottle of fox urine — marked deer hunters grade — which is known to be used by traffickers to cover the smell of narcotics, police said.
Cops also found a secret compartment in the Caravan and a bottle of fox urine — marked deer hunters grade — which is known to be used by traffickers to cover the smell of narcotics, police said.
(Handout)Officials charged the three suspects with drug possession, officials said.
For the last year, investigators have been watching Pizarro, who they believe oversees an interstate narcotics-trafficking operation that shuttles heroin from Texas to New York City and Lawrence, Mass., where the drugs are sold, authorities said.
The storage unit was rented in Pizarro’s name, according to officials. Investigators believe the money they seized was going to be used to purchase another shipment of heroin.
