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Heroin Mill Found In Red Hook: Hiding Horse So Hot In Hip Hoods

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(vladek / shutterstock)

Drug dealers are reportedly giving up on lower class neighborhoods in favor of more up-and-coming hoods. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan today tells the News that the city has "seen a pattern developing of heroin mills located in upscale and middle-class neighborhoods." And to prove that, one need look no further then Red Hook, which had something of a blast from the past last week when police raided a heroin mill on Van Brunt Street there and found a stash of heroin worth between $30,000-$50,000 (including 60 grams of pure uncut h).

As part of the raid cops arrested 46-year-old Hector Lorenzo, who they say was the mastermind of the operation. In addition to all the heroin, police say they also found drug processing equipment (think heat sealers, metal grinders and scales) as well as 25 Xanax pills and some old fashioned marijuana. When the News asked neighbors if they had any idea this was going on under their noses, they didn't. "I'm shocked. I didn't know anything about it," one man told them. "All this used to be a drug haven back in the early '90s...[But] the neighborhood is changing."

Meanwhile the Red Hook mill is not the only one to be found in an unexpected place of late. According to prosecutors "Heroin traffickers are trying to locate their operations in places where they think law enforcement will not be looking for them." So if this trend continues, will we soon be hearing about heroin mills being busted in Park Slope? Or the Upper East Side? Cause they've already popped up in the suburbs.

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Comments [rss]

  • Henry Stewart

    there was a heroin ring busted in Park Slope in April: http://parkslope.patch.com/art...

  • Guest

    Yeah, this is less than two blocks away from a housing project, which is the second largest housing project in the City and largest in Brooklyn.

  • Pretty ironic considering this heroin mill moved in when the red hook methadone clinic on van dyke st closed down in 2009 due to gentrification pressures.

  • birdtird

    they always find weed with the bad stuff

  • DietSodas

    Garth did you recently buy real estate in Red Hook?  It's still an industrial shit hole for the most part.

  • LazyNanny

    I would hardly call Red Hook "upscale". 

  • schmeep

    Oh, I don't know, the 12 blocks of housing projects are tres chic.  I'd never expect any drugs to be exchanged in them, that's so gauche.

    (And I think it would have been so much better if they found a 'Heroin MILF' instead of this).

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