Over 40 pounds of fentanyl, estimated to be worth $1.5 million, were discovered after police caught a man allegedly hauling a suitcase containing the drug, CBS reported.
Authorities announced on Thursday that they had arrested Juan Gabriel Herrera Vargas. He faces charges related to criminal possession of drugs and operating as a major drug trafficker. He allegedly transported some of the fentanyl on the subway, CBS News reported.
The incident occurred near the Bronx day care where four babies were rushed to the hospital, including a one-year-old boy who died due to fentanyl exposure earlier in the month.
Herrera Vargas was allegedly seen exiting the Kingsbridge Road subway station on Tuesday while pulling a suitcase, according to the outlet. Herrera Vargas reportedly escaped after federal drug agents and officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) approached him, leaving a rolling suitcase, the outlet noted.
Officials said that they had seen Herrera Vargas leaving an apartment while pulling a blue rolling suitcase with a prominent red stripe down the center, ABC7 reported. Upon further inspection, 50,000 glassines bundled within 25 larger packages were allegedly found inside the suitcase.
Investigators recovered more than 40 pounds of fentanyl from a suspect who they say transported the drugs in a rolling suitcase on the subway. Authorities later discovered the 42-year-old man was using a Bronx apartment as a drug trafficking mill. pic.twitter.com/X5YgvMNwfz
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) September 28, 2023
Police also allegedly found approximately one kilogram of suspected fentanyl, six pounds of loose powder, a cache of 10,000 pre-filled glassines, and various materials used for packaging glassines, ABC 7 noted. (RELATED: Authorities Confiscate 150,000 Fentanyl Pills In Largest Seizure In Oregon’s History)
“The public outcry after the poisoning death of a toddler was not enough to stop a drug mill from operating just six blocks away from that day care,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino explained, as per CBS News. “Herrera Vargas took danger one step further and wheeled over 40 pounds of fentanyl around the city and on the subway with no regard to public safety.”
“Once again, a large supply of fentanyl has been found in the Bronx. For years, our community has been a hub for fentanyl distribution and has suffered so many deaths. The catastrophic loss of one-year-old Nicholas Dominici is the bleakest reminder that we must be relentless in removing drug traffickers from our city,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said, the outlet noted.