Police broke up an Upper East Side heroin distribution center this week, located in the rarefied real estate of 75th St. between 2nd and 3rd Aves. Neighbors seemed shocked after police broke down the door of apartment 2B at 242 East 75th, a street unfamiliar with narcotics unit raids. One said, "I was leaving my apartment [and there was a] battering ram and there were cops, so I asked some questions and I found out what has happened. You don't know who your neighbors are in this city. You just never know."

Inside the studio apartment, cops found 1.5 kilograms of heroin, $100,000 in cash, glassine bags and drug paraphernalia. Particularly interesting is the Metrocard being used as a tool to cut bulk heroin. And the view out of the kitchen window, was one of Robert F. Wagner middle school's playground across the street.

Authorities say Juan Pablo Ramos called East 75th Street apartment "the office," but cops also found bank records and computers in his NJ home. In the studio, Ramos and associates allegedly cut and packaged heroin in ten-dollar bags, later sold in the Upper East Side, West Village, Gramercy Park and East Harlem. The Drug Enforcement Agency estimates the operation grossed $4 million a year by selling more than 4 kilograms of heroin a month.

The investigation that led to the raid was months in the making. One of the people arrested was a Manhattan court officer, who waas trying to buy drugs on Bleecker Street from one of Ramos' associates. The court officer was found with $30 worth of heroin and his court-issued gun.