Metro

Drugs featuring Pablo Escobar’s face seized in $20M bust

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A package branded with Pablo Escobar's face seized in a massive Harlem drug bust.
A package branded with Pablo Escobar's face seized in a massive Harlem drug bust.DEA
Narcotics seized in a drug bust in Harlem.
Narcotics seized in a drug bust in Harlem.DEA
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Narcotics seized in a drug bust in Harlem.
DEA
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Up to $20 million in heroin and fentanyl was seized from a Harlem apartment last week — including some in packages paying homage to one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins.

Some of the illicit drugs bore the labels “Pablo” and “Escobar’’ and had a photo of the infamous late Colombian drug lord on them, authorities said Monday.

“This organization used a photo of Pablo Escobar, who was known as the King of Cocaine, to mark their product. Albeit, this seizure was not cocaine, it shows a sign of the times, that heroin/fentanyl are the traffickers most profitable and plentiful product and the public’s deadliest threat,’’ DEA Agent-in-Charge Ray Donovan said in a statement.

Two dealers were rounded up amid the massive haul — estimated at being worth between $10 million and $20 million, depending on its yet-undetermined potency — at 630 Lenox Ave. near West 141st Street and the Harlem River Drive.

Ariel Hernandez was arrested and charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance; Luisuidyn Garcia Mena was arrested and charged with conspiracy in the second degree and false personation.

Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations carried out the raid as part of an investigation into a drug trafficking ring, officials said.

Authorities also found $200,000 in cash at the scene.