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Cops stopped Harris on the corner of 41st Road and 12th Street in Long Island City as he rode a bicycle and allegedly recovered 98 white glassine envelopes, which they believe to contain a mixture of Fentanyl and heroin.
By Forum Staff
An investigation into an overdose “epidemic” in Queens that started at the beginning of this year, has led to the arrest of Hubert Harris, of 102nd St. in Corona, charging the 66 year old with selling and possessing narcotic drugs laced with the opioid painkiller Fentanyl. District Attorney Richard Brown noted that to date there were 57 fatal overdoses and more than 60 non-fatal overdoses in the county and that the lives of some overdose victims were saved only after the administration of Naloxone, a medication developed specifically to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses.
“Heroin, unfortunately, has made a deadly comeback in New York City and in the surrounding suburbs,” said District Attorney Brown. “Over the past four months, Queens has had 57 fatal overdoses – far exceeding the number of homicides and vehicular deaths that have occurred in the borough so far this year. Most troubling is that we are witnessing heroin being mixed with the synthetic drug Fentanyl, which is thirty to fifty times more potent than heroin. This is creating a deadly cocktail for people who may be using such a mixture unknowingly.” He went on to note that defendants that sell Fentanyl to a buyer who dies from an overdose, they will face a minimum of 20 years in prison. “A seller is responsible for what he or she sells and we will now be tracking people who sell drugs containing Fentanyl.” The efforts launched in Queens County to stem the tide of what is being perceived as an epidemic situation include not only the office of the DA but their colleagues in the NYPD and federal law enforcement.
Data from the New York City Department of Health shows there were more than 1,300 fatal overdoses in New York City in 2016, and perhaps more disturbing, is that approximately half of the drug overdoses in the last six months of 2016 involved Fentanyl.”
Hubert Harris was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Karen Gopee on a criminal complaint charging him with third- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and resisting arrest.
According to the complaint, an undercover detective observed a man purchase several glassine envelopes from Harris on April 6, 2017. The buyer was stopped by police, who recovered five white glassine envelopes and five blue glassine envelopes. After conductiong a thorough toxicology screen on the substance in the bags it was determined the white envelopes contained Fentanyl and cocaine, while the blue envelope contained Fentanyl and Tramadol (a prescription painkiller).
Criminal charges say that on May 9, 2017, members of the NYPD’s Queens North Narcotics Division stopped Harris on the corner of 41 Road and 12th St. as he rode a bicycle and allegedly recovered 98 white glassine envelopes, which they believe to contain a mixture of Fentanyl and heroin.
Harris, who faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $100,000 bail and to return to court on May 24, 2017.
