By The newspaper
06 Oct 2023, 11:11 AM EDT
A ring of alleged drug traffickers who helped flood a Brooklyn (NYC) neighborhood with crack cocaine and heroin has been dismantled, in the latest crackdown amid the city’s opioid crisis.
Six men were arrested on suspicion of trafficking the deadly drugs near the corner of Putnam Ave. and Nostrand Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant from May 2022 until this Tuesday, October 3, when police were able to catch them, the Brooklyn prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Lance Spearman, Herbert Bazemore, Larry Childress, Steve Rich, Jermalee Reese and Travis Davis were arrested and charged with narcotics, he noted. DailyNews. During the 17-month investigation the men allegedly sold drugs to 25 undercover detectives working the case.
In a traffic stop on September 23, the NYPD found 60 green glass envelopes filled with heroin in the pocket of Bazemore (43), prosecutors said. After obtaining a search warrant to search the car, officers found 59 more bundles of envelopes and $5,500 in cash, they added.
The raid came as authorities battle a deadly opioid crisis. Last year 3,026 people died from overdoses in the city, according to the Department of Health (DOH), a 12% annual increase.
The growing supply of fentanyl has exacerbated the city’s drug epidemic: the deadly opioid is detected in 80% of overdose deaths, according to the DOH.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be used to mix drugs such as cocaine or heroin and produce an effect up to 50 times stronger.
Even children have been victims of the rash of overdoses, in homes and daycares. On September 15, a 1-year-old baby died and three more were hospitalized due to fentanyl use at a child care center in The Bronx (NYC). Four Hispanics were arrested in that case, including the owner of the “Divino Niño” daycare center and her husband.
In 2022, New York municipal authorities launched a controversial campaign on public transportation with “tips” to consume fentanyl “safely,” which some described as counterproductive and irresponsible.
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