By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
LOWER EAST SIDE — Police arrested two people inside an Allen Street housing complex Tuesday night for possession of drugs with intent to sell, the NYPD said.
Luis Chevres, 40, and Maria Zabala, 52, of the Hernandez Houses at 189 Allen St., were arrested about 10 p.m. after police executed a search warrant and found an undisclosed amount of drugs, police said. Police did not say what type of drugs were recovered.
Both were charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the NYPD.
Neighbors reported seeing multiple police personnel at the scene as well as a helicopter circling above around the time of the arrests. The NYPD said the helicopter was brought in for an unrelated incident in the area.
"This is the neighborhood," said Johnny Rivera, 47, a lifelong Lower East Side resident whose family lives in the building, adding that drug dealers "are the ones who run this" area.
Rivera noted that police had to escort some residents to their apartments while the arrests were being made.
"It's dangerous," he said.
Another neighbor who lives in a nearby building and claimed to know Chevres said he saw him being brought out of the building and offered to call his family for him.
"This is [public] housing, man," added the neighbor, who declined to provide his name.
