By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Four people were arrested Wednesday night in a $6.5 million heroin bust at a $3,800 a month apartment in the Theater District including three from upper Manhattan, officials said.
In all, 13 kilograms of the drug were seized, drug enforcement officials said. The dealers allegedly tagged their products with various stamps including "Jersey Boys" and "Cats and Dogs."
The Drug Enforcement Task Force, composed of local prosecutors and federal agents, set up surveillance outside the building, 417 West 43rd Street, in the days prior to the bust.
The operation had been running in the apartment for about two weeks before the arrests.
One of the men arrested at the purported heroin mill was caught trying to drive away in his BMW with a garbage bag full of heroin paraphernalia, prosecutors said.
Inside the car were glassine envelopes, kilogram plastic wrappers and other paraphernalia, including items that were "observed to be coated in a tan powdery substance believed to be heroin," according to the criminal complaint.
The driver, Johnny Oscar Heredia, 50, admitted after his arrest that he was "expecting to receive two bundles of heroin" in exchange for disposing of the bag, prosecutors said.
The city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said authorities discovered "a booming heroin mill in a completely unexpected location" — a $3,800 rental apartment near Times Square.
"You can only imagine the shock of neighbors, commuters and theater goers when they learned of the huge criminal enterprise operating inside," Brennan added.
The defendants, Heredia, Juan Hernandez, 47, and Luz Liriano, 35, of Washington Heights and Harlem, and Gregorio Antionio Conce, 47, of the Bronx are were arraigned on drug charges late Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
They face up between eight and 20 years in prison if convicted.
