PATERSON: Narcotics detectives who stopped an SUV late in the afternoon in a busy neighborhood near Route 80 hardly expected the major haul of pure heroin they uncovered upon searching the vehicle Wednesday with the help of a police dog.
Detectives, working from a citizen’s tip about street-level drug dealing, confiscated nearly nine pounds of uncut heroin Wednesday evening — enough drugs to fill about 600,000 of the glassine packets sold on the corners, according to Paterson police, who placed its value at about $2 million.
“This was a surprise,” said Captain Troy Oswald, head of the police department’s narcotics unit, when asked whether detectives expected the driver to be carrying such a large quantity of heroin.
Police Director Jerry Speziale in a rare press conference on Thursday said authorities believe the heroin was headed to a local processing mill, where it would be packaged for street-level sales. But, citing the confidentiality as the investigation continues, authorities would not say where they believe the driver picked up the heroin or exactly where he was delivering it.
Gabriel Mercado, 35, of Paterson, who was driving the SUV when it was stopped, was charged with various narcotics offenses, police said.
Police said the drugs — in four separate kilogram packages — were in a hidden compartment in the center console of an SUV that was stopped on East 31st Street during surveillance conducted as a result of the citizen’s tip.
Speziale said the bust likely disrupted someone’s drug operation. “Somebody spent a lot of money to import this into this country,” he said.
Mercado, who lives on River Street, was driving alone in the SUV at 5 p.m. when detectives pulled him over near the triangle where Market Street, 21st Avenue and East 31st Street intersect, police said.
As they checked the SUV, detectives noticed wires and other alterations consistent with the installation of electronic doors and hidden compartments, police said. The heroin was detected by a K9 dog named Barry and his handler, Officer James DiPiazza, Speziale said.
Less than a month ago, federal and local authorities seized 18 kilograms of heroin and 20 kilograms of cocaine from a tractor-trailer at a warehouse on 2nd Avenue.
Speziale said each of the four kilograms seized on Wednesday could have been broken down into 50,000 glassines of pure heroin and likely would have produced three times as many packets had it been mixed with a cutting agent commonly added to drugs before dealers market it on the street.
