Authorities seize more than 300 bricks of heroin, $20K, and handguns in NJ drug bust

Authorities broke up a drug ring over the weekend, seizing semi-automatic handguns, $20,000 in cash, and more than 300 bricks of heroin in a bust that brought down two heroin mills and saw six people arrested in Paterson, New Jersey.

The bust was made as the result of a joint investigation between the New Jersey State Police, Passaic Country Sheriffs, and the Drug Enforcement Agency’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.

According to authorities, two of the suspects were taken into custody when heroin packaging materials were found in their vehicle after they were pulled over on Interstate 80, and two others were pulled over in a vehicle that was found to have a secret compartment containing 165 bricks of heroin and hollow point bullets.

Subsequent searches of the suspects homes -- believed by authorities to be heroin mills -- led to two more arrests and the seizing of 148 additional bricks of heroin along with heroin packaging and distribution supplies, more handguns, ammunition, and a silencer.

“The success of this operation prevented the distribution of a large quantity of heroin, and removed guns from the hands of criminals,” Colonel Rick Fuentes, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said in a news release. “Due to the tireless efforts of the detectives involved, these drugs will never make it into our communities.”

[North Jersey] [NBC]