Mexican cartel drug smuggler stashed 300K fentanyl pills from in SUV gas tank: NYC prosecutors
A crafty drug smuggler for a Mexican cartel was nabbed in The Bronx with 300,000 fentanyl-laced pills stashed in the gas tank of his SUV, authorities alleged Wednesday.
Enrique Perez, 44, was pulled over in his red Ford Expedition near Yankee Stadium on Sunday as part of a joint city, state and federal investigation into cartel drug traffic, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor said in a press release.
An NYPD K-9 unit was initially confused after sniffing out drugs in the car — until cops figured out the stash was in the gas tank, prosecutors alleged.
Inside vacuum-sealed bags, cops said they found a cache of fake oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl and a large amount of powdered fentanyl — all from Mexican cartels. The drugs have a street value of about $5 million, authorities said.
“At a time when our city’s overdose rates are at a record high, the discovery of more than 11 pounds of powdered fentanyl and hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills manufactured to look like prescription pills, concealed in the gas tank of a truck near the Bronx courthouse is truly alarming,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said in a statement.
Perez, who is from Ohio, was driving the Ford, which had Texas plates, on East 161st Street shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sunday when the vehicle was pulled over in what authorities called a short-term investigation.
Investigators later determined that the SUV had crossed the US border with Mexico “multiple times.”
“This seizure demonstrates one of the many ways evil drug cartels like the Sinaloa cartel smuggle fentanyl from Mexico to major cities like New York for street distribution,” Frank Tarentino, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York field office, said in a statement.
“While we hit the accelerator on our enforcement efforts, the cartels go to extremes to conceal illicit drugs in implausible spots like the gas tank of a vehicle,” Tarentino said.
Perez was charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was arraigned Monday in Bronx Criminal Court and is being held at Rikers Island on $200,000 bail.
In addition to the special prosecutor’s office, the DEA and the NYPD, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force took part in the investigation.
