Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2017
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2017 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Robert Allen

87 POUNDS OF HEROIN FOUND IN RAID OF NOVI APARTMENT COMPLEX

Investigators found more than 87 pounds of suspected heroin Monday
during a raid at a Novi apartment, according to a federal criminal
complaint.

DEA agents and the Oakland County Narcotics Investigation Team entered
the Brownstones apartment complex unit shortly after 9:30 a.m. on the
42200 block of Joyce Lane to find three men inside, along with eight
bricks of a light-brown substance on a table in plain sight, according
to the complaint from special agent Michael Reamer in U.S. District
Court.

With help from a police dog, more suspected heroin was found in the
closets and under a seat in a rental car parked outside. A "still
undetermined amount of bulk" cash was also found in the closets,
according to the complaint.

Andre Lee Scott, Adolfo Verdugo-Lopez and Manuel Arnulfo Barajas,
whose ages range from about 22-51 and were all in the apartment during
the raid, were named in the complaint on suspicion of possession with
intent to distribute heroin.

The investigators, with a search warrant, had initially arrived
outside the second-floor apartment and "loudly announced their
presence, with no response," so they got a key from the leasing office
to get inside, according to the complaint.

The "sparsely furnished" apartment was found to have 11 kilograms on
the table, 27.5 kilograms in the closet and 1.19 kilograms in the
rental vehicle -- all suspected heroin, according to the complaint.
That totals about 87.5 pounds.

The investigators didn't field test the drugs because of concerns that
contact with fentanyl or carfentinal -- known to be mixed into drugs
such as heroin -- can be deadly hazardous.

"Based on my training and experience as a narcotics enforcement
detective, I have probable cause to believe that all exhibits are a
mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of heroin,"
according to the complaint.
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