Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Monday, June 15, that 32 people, named further below, have been charged in five indictments with flooding the Hub area of the South Bronx with fentanyl, heroin and other narcotics. They said four of the defendants are charged with operating as a major trafficker.

 

Unintentional overdose rates per head of population in The Bronx from illicit drugs are the highest in the City. A breakdown is provided further below from recent years. More to follow.

 

Once a bustling shopping district, as Clark mentioned, the Hub, a South Bronx junction where East 149th Street, Third Avenue and Melrose Avenue meet, has since become an open-air drug market with users frequently seen injecting deadly drugs on the street in broad daylight.

 

“These defendants allegedly operated in the Hub area, where shoppers, businesses and passersby had to endure flagrant drug dealing at all hours of the day, and where at least five people overdosed from deadly narcotics during that time,” the district attorney said. “The street dealers and their suppliers are heard on wiretaps speaking about their drug brands, Bugatti, TikTok, Prada, Bad Bunny, being too strong and causing people to ‘fall down.'”

She added, “The residents should not have to live with such diminished quality of life, and we believe there will be a considerable difference now in the Hub.”

 

For her part, Tisch said, “For too long, drug dealers have illegally operated at the Bronx Hub, preying on the most vulnerable New Yorkers, and creating a dangerous environment for the entire community. But after a long-term case, NYPD investigators dismantled five drug trafficking rings that were responsible for supplying and distributing narcotics in the Hub, across the city, and throughout four different states.”

 

She added, “This is just part of the remarkable public-safety work our officers are doing in the Bronx, which is leading the entire city in crime reduction. Thank you to the NYPD’s Bronx Narcotics Major Case Squad and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for their commitment to shutting down these criminal organizations and restoring safety to our streets.”

Clark said 27 of the defendants were arrested and arraigned from June 9 through 12, before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Giyang An. She said four alleged suppliers/leader are charged with operating as a major trafficker. If convicted of that charge, she said they face up to life in prison.

 

The court heard that three of them, Miguel Santiago, AKA Chance, of the Prada criminal enterprise; Milagros Jimenez, AKA La Vieja, of the Bugatti criminal enterprise; and Luis Castro, AKA Cagua, who is associated with both the Prada and Bugatti criminal enterprises, were detained in custody. Prosecutors said the fourth, Anthony Cruz, AKA Menor, was arrested in Florida on June 12. They said four defendants are still being sought.

 

According to the year-long investigation by Narcotics Borough Bronx Major Case Unit and the Bronx DA’s Special Investigations Bureau, the Ghost criminal enterprise operated in The Hub, and the Prada, TikTok, Brook and Bugatti criminal enterprises operated within a few blocks of The Hub, located within the 40th Precinct.

It appears the criminal drug enterprises were using the names of their enterprises as brand names. There is no known connection with those brands or with singer, Bad Bunny. For the avoidance of doubt, Norwood News has asked The Bronx DA’s for a comment on the use of the brand names and will share any updates we receive. We also asked if all the defendants are all residents of the Bronx and will share any updates we receive.

 

Prosecutors said the investigation traced the deadly narcotics trade from the lowest level to the major supplier. According to the investigation, each criminal enterprise had a supplier who trafficked kilos of fentanyl, a leader, managers, street dealers and runners. They said thousands of glassines of fentanyl were sold.

 

Clark said each indictment variously charges the defendants with numerous counts of varying degrees of criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and conspiracy.

BRONX DISTRICT ATTORNEY Darcel Clark, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other officials announce Monday, June 15, 2026 during a press conference at the Office of the Bronx District Attorney in the Concourse section of The Bronx that 32 people have been charged in five indictments with flooding The Hub area of the South Bronx with fentanyl, heroin and other narcotics, making the bustling shopping district an open-air drug market with users injecting deadly drugs on the street in broad daylight. Video by Síle Moloney

Prosecutors said twelve search warrants were executed on June 9-11, and nine additional people who were at those locations but not on the indictments were arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. They added that in addition to the fentanyl and methamphetamine recovered, a kilo of cocaine and $100,000 was seized during the searches.

 

Tisch said two people were currently pending arraignment, three people have been detained in custody, eleven were charged with bail eligible crimes and had bail set, 20 were not charged with bail eligible crimes. In response to a question on the topic, Clark said a deportation order is pending for one of the defendants and one defendant was also previously deported. “The federal authorities will be dealing with that,” she said.

 

Clark added that now that the Hub operations have been shut down, the next step is to deal with the demand and get resources to the people who live with addiction who need help. More to follow.

 

The NYC health department recently launched a new campaign, entitled “Just in Case,” to increase public awareness, particularly in communities where overdose deaths are the highest, of the availability of free naloxone kits, the overdose reversal nasal spray medication. The campaign shows New Yorkers where they can order a naloxone kit by mail for free, and sign up for a virtual training.

 

In May 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced a $12 million investment to expand access to life-saving recovery services for New Yorkers at risk of overdose. City officials said the funding will support the certification and employment of peer specialists, people with a history of substance-use disorder who help others in recovery, and strengthen direct outreach efforts across the five boroughs. Over four years, the investment is expected to create 500 new peer specialist positions through community-based organizations citywide, city officials said.

In April, two fentanyl mills were busted in Belmont and Mt. Eden. In March, Grei Mendez, the Bronx daycare owner of El Divino Niño daycare center on Morris Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, along with her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, were each sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of Nicholas Feliz Dominici after the one-year-old was fatally poisoned from a fentanyl overdose in Sept 2023 at the now-closed daycare, where a cover fentanyl operation was being run. They were both previously sentenced in federal court last November.  Both had previously pleaded guilty in federal court on separate federal charges relating to the incident. Read more here.

 

In January, six men were arrested following a drug packaging mill sting operation in which cocaine, cash and fentanyl was seized in the Mt. Eden section of The Bronx.  In September 2025, six people were also arrested and charged with running a fentanyl mill on Aqueduct Avenue in the University Heights section of The Bronx. In April 2025, a Bronx man was indicted for packaging fentanyl in the Inwood section of Northern Manhattan. In December 2024, three people were charged with fentanyl and heroin packaging in the Allerton section of The Bronx.

 

A summary of the indictments is outlined below. The defendants are deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

Bugatti Indictment

Milagros Jimenez, also known as La Vieja

Luis Castro, also known as Cagua

Juna Colon

Alejandro Gonzalez, also known as Alex

Leonides Cruz,

Additional defendant also known as The Girl not yet apprehended

Additional defendant also known as The Boy not yet apprehended

Brook Indictment 

Elaine Alvarez

Alberto Ocasio, also known as AD

Jose Perez, also known as Viejo

Jorge Acevedo, also known as Pilon

Steven Rivera

Jose Rodriguez

 

Prada Indictment 

Miguel Santiago, also known as Chance

Luis Castro, also known as Cagua

Anibal Colon Torres, also known as Anibal Rolon Torres

Sabriel Lamberty, also known as Heavy

Edwin Cruz

Benevito Silvario Sr.

Benvito Silvario Jr.

Maribel Feal

Raul Moracen, also known as Cuba

Victor Feal, also known as Mano

TikTok Indictment 

Anthony Cruz, also known as Menor

Julieries Rivera-Colon, also known as Mafia

Jose Martinez, also known as Bory

Angel Melendez

Jose Depaula, also known as Jonsue Depaula, also known as Negro

Felix Castro

Jose Resto

 

Ghost Indictment 

Andy Ramos

Hommy Ortiz, also known as Sniper

 

The announcement comes, as reported, as citywide crime statistics for May were recently released. While Tisch noted that overall citywide major crime is down, and the new Patrol Borough Bronx South command similarly saw a decrease in year-to-date index crimes in May, conversely, much of the Northwest Bronx precincts (52nd, 50th and 46th) saw a rise in year-to-date crime in several major categories. Norwood News asked the commissioner if she had any comments in that regard.

 

“The crime declines that we have seen generally, in the borough of the Bronx, particularly in the South Bronx, have really been historic across the borough so far this year,” she said in part. “Of course, there are always going to be problem areas, problem precincts, and that’s why we use the CompStat process (NYPD crime data collection tool), and we do deployments of officers to places where we’re seeing crime go up.