A Bronx man was busted when investigators found a $7 million stash of fentanyl and heroin hidden in a secret coffee table compartment this week, prosecutors said Thursday.
Samuel Rojas-Camacho, 59, was nabbed Monday night after investigators searched an apartment on DeKalb Avenue near East 212th Street — just outside Van Cortlandt Park — and discovered the hidden 50-pound stockpile, prosecutors said.
Federal agents and local cops were conducting an investigation around 9 p.m. Monday at the corner of Jerome Avenue and East 233rd Street when they stopped a green Jaguar sedan, authorities said.
Rojas-Camacho was a passenger in the sedan, according to prosecutors, who said they determined that he had traveled out of state that same day.
Video surveillance also showed him walking in and out of the lobby of the DeKalb Avenue building about three separate times, authorities said.
Investigators from the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-21 showed up at that building about an hour later and raided a fifth-floor apartment
There they found about 11 brick-shaped packages of heroin and fentanyl, containing about 1 kilogram of narcotics each, according to prosecutors.
They also found five hockey puck-shaped packages and a large plastic bag holding the drugs, investigators said.
All of the items were stashed inside a “concealed compartment” in a coffee table, according to authorities.
The estimated street value of the narcotics is around $7 million, prosecutors said.
Street-ready glassine envelopes stamped with the brand name “Skull Crusher,” as well as plastic bags holding the drugs, were found in the bedroom closet.
Rojas-Camacho was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree.
During his Tuesday night arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court, a judge set bail at $100,000 cash or bond, or $200,000 partially secured bond.
“This apartment contained 23 kilograms/50lbs of fentanyl/heroin concealed in a secret compartment of a coffee table,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said in a statement. “Removing this fentanyl/heroin from our streets is the equivalent of saving thousands of lives.”
The NYPD and New York State Police contributed to the investigation.
Tags: Arrests Drug Trafficking Fentanyl Heroin Interdiction Opioid Crisis
