PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two Philadelphia men have been charged with heading up a drug ring in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
According to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, 45-year-old Richard Nunez and 43-year-old Javier Cornelio Fabian were caught in an undercover operation with fentanyl, almost nine pounds of heroin, and about four pounds of Xylazine, also known as Tranq.
During the investigation, detectives learned that, on Tuesday, Fabian was set to sell about eight pounds of heroin to a buyer at the King of Prussia Mall.
Law enforcement monitored the meetup beforehand between Fabian and Nunez where a “black and white bag was transferred from Nunez to Fabian.”
After that, law enforcement followed Fabian as he drove to the mall, stopped him, and seized the bag of heroin.
Both Nunez and Fabian were arrested that day. They are charged with 20 felony counts of corrupt organization, conspiracy, possession with intent to deliver, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities, and criminal use of a communications facility
Authorities say they issued multiple search warrants and seized 366,700 doses of heroin, fentanyl and Xylazine with a street value of $3.6 million, as well as $25,000 in cash and multiple cellphones used in the operation
Officials say while Xylazine is typically used to cut heroin to increase its potency, they're starting to see it sold by itself. They add that since it’s only intended for use in animals, it hasn’t been tested on humans, so it’s hard to estimate what makes a lethal dose.
“Xylazine also eats flesh of people who are subsequently suffering from substance use disorder. So it's killing them in a different way,” Steele said.
Steele notes Xylazine isn’t an opioid, so overdose-reversal drugs like Naloxone do not work.
“So xylazine is one of the main drivers that has recently made this heroin-opioid-fentanyl epidemic crisis much worse.”
Nunez was deported to the Dominican Republic when he was released from jail in 2016 after a previous narcotics conviction but found his way back into the country.
Fabian was also involved in deportation proceedings after he was arrested by Customs and Border Protection in May 2020.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 11.