NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Two men were busted in Manhattan for reportedly smuggling 50,000 fentanyl pills over the southern border — using chili flakes to evade drug-sniffing dogs.
The New York Daily News reports Jose Martinez, 45, and Baldemar Flores-Valenzuela, 22, were arrested by the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force as the two were in a parked car in Hell's Kitchen around 8:40 p.m. Monday.
Inside the car on 10th Avenue near West 54th Street, authorities found two black garbage bags with about $500,000 worth of pills imprinted to look like oxycodone but contained fentanyl.
Each package was wrapped in a mesh-type fabric lined with chili flakes, the Daily News reports.
Authorities are reportedly investigating how the men were able to successfully transfer the drugs over the U.S.-Mexico border and whether they were transported by car or truck or a delivery service.
The Daily News reports Flores-Valenzuela waiting for a judge hearing Wednesday while Martinez was arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court and held in lieu of $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond.
Fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed across the U.S. from nearly 71,000 in 2019 to more than 81,000 in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC recorded 2,243 drug overdose deaths between March 2020 and March 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic — a 36% increase from a year before.
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