A callous crew deals in death
A SADISTIC crew of dope dealers pushed fentanyl-laced heroin in New York City and Rockland County, leading to nine overdoses, three of them fatal, law enforcement sources said Thursday. One of the dealers even mocked his customers’ reaction to the deadly mix, calling it a “fentanyl dance,” — then told an accomplice that he’d start pushing straight fentanyl, authorities revealed. Federal drug enforcers announced Thursday they indicted nine members of the crew, accusing them of feeding a wave of opioid overdoses in Rockland County and New York. All but one have been arrested. In one instance in Queens on Dec. 15, one of their customers survived an overdose after being given the anti-OD medicine naloxone, officials said. The dealers got their drugs from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and sold them outside Rockland County supermarkets and in people’s homes. One dealer, Robert (Face) Diaz, of Haverstraw, knew just how dangerous his product was — and that his customers didn’t know they were getting fentanyl, according to an 11-page indictment. On March 20, Diaz laughed with his Bronx supplier, Pablo (Menor) Perez, 37, about the “fentanyl dance,” prosecutors said. Dealers often cut their heroin with fentanyl, a synthetic, cheapto-manufacture opioid. All nine members of the drug ring face 10 years to life in prison if convicted. Diaz faces a 20-year minimum because prosecutors can link the drugs he sold to the Dec. 15 overdose, officials said.