A 2-year-old child was found inside a bedroom at a first-floor Williamsbridge apartment that investigators say doubled as an active fentanyl packaging mill, with roughly four pounds of the drug and tens of thousands of dose envelopes stashed inside. The bust unfolded on Tuesday at 755 East 216th Street, in a building that sits directly across the street from a daycare center and playground and near a public middle school.
Police disrupted the operation after investigating an alleged fentanyl packaging operation hidden inside the Williamsbridge apartment, according to News12 Bronx. Investigators say they found Ariendy Jiminez-Hidalgo and her 2-year-old child inside a bedroom of the apartment. The same report states that prosecutors believe five other children under age 15 also lived in the apartment.
Drugs, Cash Value and Packaging Gear Recovered
Police recovered around four pounds of fentanyl mixtures from the apartment, the outlet reported, with prosecutors putting the street value of the drugs at more than $500,000. Officers also pulled tens of thousands of individual dose glassine envelopes from the scene, and investigators seized grinders, cutting agents, masks and heat lamps used in the alleged packaging process.
Bridget G. Brennan, the special narcotics prosecutor, described the search of the apartment as a rescue mission, per the same report. The location of the apartment across from a daycare center and playground, and its proximity to a public middle school, underscored the stakes investigators cited in describing the operation.
Three Taken Into Custody, Charges and Bail Set
Police took Ariendy Jiminez-Hidalgo, Jose Cordero-Concepcion and Erik Jesus Reynoso-Burgos into custody in connection with the alleged mill. Prosecutors charged the three with criminal possession of a controlled substance, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, criminal facilitation and unlawfully dealing with a child, the station's report notes.
A court set bail for Jose Cordero-Concepcion at $150,000 cash or bond, while Erik Jesus Reynoso-Burgos had bail set at $50,000 cash or bond. Ariendy Jiminez-Hidalgo was released on her own recognizance, according to the same account.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Bronx Drug Mills
The Williamsbridge discovery follows a string of similar busts across the borough this year. In August, federal agents raided another Bronx fentanyl packaging mill near East 224th Street in Wakefield, arresting seven people and seizing narcotics worth roughly $1 million, as reported by the New York Daily News. The DEA found four men and one woman working inside that active packaging operation, where roughly eight pounds of apparent fentanyl mixtures were recovered.
In July, 14 children from two first-floor daycare centers were evacuated after powdered drugs allegedly became airborne inside a separate Bronx apartment in Fordham, according to PIX11. A court-authorized search in that case allegedly recovered nearly 10 pounds of fentanyl along with blenders, glassine envelopes, scales, stamps and inkpads. Separately, authorities seized more than 40 pounds of suspected fentanyl from a Bronx drug mill located six blocks from a daycare where a 1-year-old child died after fentanyl exposure, ABC7 New York reported.
The pattern reflects a broader crisis in the borough. Bronx residents had New York City's highest overdose-death rate in 2023 at 78.0 per 100,000, according to NYC Health data. Investigators continue to probe how operations like the one found at 755 East 216th Street took root so close to schools and childcare sites.
