15 Arrested In Bronx Heroin Sting Operation
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Fifteen people who authorities say were part of a heroin trafficking ring in the Bronx have been arrested.
As WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported, police responded to community complaints about drug trafficking and violence around Grand Avenue and East 184th Street in the University Heights section of the Bronx.
After a three-month investigation, cops made the 15 arrests based on 10 sales of heroin to undercover officers, authorities said.
The reputed ringleader was Carlos Rivera, who was nicknamed "El Monstruo," Spanish for "The Monster."
The group is charged with selling 3,500 individual glassine envelopes of heroin branded "Scarface" to the cops.
According to authorities, a search of two apartments used by the gang turned up a full-scale heroin-processing operation, other drugs, $12,000 in cash and two young children -- ages 1 and 2 -- which led to additional criminal charges.
The charges include criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminally using drug paraphernalia and unlawfully dealing with a child.