Heroin Operation Found Inside Brooklyn Candy Store

Routine inspection for untaxed cigarettes led to hidden rooms containing cache of drugs believed to be heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, PCP and lidocaine




ENLARGE
Pedestrians walk near Brooklyn’s Gates Candy & Grocery, where police discovered a cache of drugs behind a fake wall. PHOTO: JOHN TAGGART FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL



By PERVAIZ SHALLWANI and
HENRICK KAROLISZYN

Updated June 24, 2016 8:46 p.m. ET1 COMMENTS

A routine inspection for untaxed cigarettes led authorities to a hidden heroin operation inside a Brooklyn bodega and candy store, officials said Friday.

New York City police charged Hamdan Alsaidi, 33 years old, and Mohamad Ali, 46, with multiple counts of drug possession including a top charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, authorities said.

The two men were arraigned Friday in Brooklyn Criminal Court. Their lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, said his clients didn’t have criminal records and were merely workers with no knowledge of any other activity at the store.

Mr. Lazzaro said Mr. Ali had only worked at the store for a short time and that Mr. Alsaidi had just returned from a trip to visit family in Yemen.

A man working at the store who identified himself as a manager declined to comment.

Police came upon the cache of drugs Thursday, a day after an inspector with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance conducted a routine undercover inspection for sales of untaxed cigarettes at Gates Candy & Grocery on Gates Avenue in the Bushwick neighborhood, authorities said.

While in the store, the inspector noticed what appeared to be a fake wall and drugs out in the open and alerted local police, authorities said.

Officers responded, noticed a large quantity of drugs and applied for a search warrant, a law-enforcement official said.
On Thursday, police executed a search warrant and found three hidden rooms and a hidden basement in the bodega, a second official said.

Investigators recovered barrels, vials and large bags of drugs believed to be heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, PCP and lidocaine, officials said.

Along with drugs, authorities recovered drug-operation paraphernalia including grinders with drug residue, vials and more than 1.2 million glassine envelopes, the officials said.

“It was a very large seizure, a great case,” Police Commissioner William Bratton said. “It just reflects how significant that problem has become around that particular drug,” he said of the heroin.

Neighbors who saw police conduct the raid described an elaborate operation.

Junior Burgos, 48, who works at a supermarket across the street, said he arrived Thursday to find police stationed outside with investigators in protective suits carrying evidence from the store.

“They took out over 20 boxes,” he said. “I saw them taking it out of the ceiling with ladders.”

Mr. Burgos said he regularly noticed people pull up in cars outside the store, park in handicap spaces and run in and out of the store.

“I would see up to six cars a day go in,” he said.

William Morales, 46, who lives near the bodega, said he was surprised to see the bust.

“I lived here for 21 years and have never seen anything like this,” he said. “Why would you do that in a peaceful neighborhood? There are no robberies or shootings. Just working people. Why put people at risk? They need to shut down and get out of the neighborhood.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/heroin-o...ore-1466784039