A million dollar Bronx drug mill is out of commission and the heroin hustler behind it is is under arrest, authorities said Thursday.
Wadley Tavares, 35, is accused of using his three bedroom apartment on Andrews Ave. North, in University Heights as a packaging plant for opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine, prosecutors said.
Tavares was nabbed with drug filled backpack in hand at 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday. There were three brick-shaped packages of fentanyl, about three kilograms, in the bag, according to court papers.
A search of his apartment revealed about $1 million worth of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, ready to be packaged and weighed for sale, authorities said. In all, investigators seized 13 pounds of narcotics.
Empty glassine envelopes, grinders and a scale were discovered in the master bedroom, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
Taveras allegedly gave it up once he was picked up by police.
“I have been living at the apartment,” he said, admitting that he “was given nine kilos last Tuesday to store.”
He claimed he got further instructions to “bring three kilos to someone who was going to be in a car outside,” authorities said.
Tavares’ apartment/stash house is on the same block as two day care centers, the New York Center for Infants and Toddlers and Little Shepard’s Daycare Center. Prosecutors said there is also a private elementary school on the street.
He is charged with multiple counts of drug possession and using drug paraphernalia. He was held on $200,000 bail after his arraignment on Wednesday. His lawyer declined to comment.