By Eric Klein
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A notorious Bronx drug market was shut down, and 14 dealers who helped operate it arrested Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and other city prosecutors announced the bust, which followed a joint local-federal wiretap investigation into heroin and cocaine dealing at a Mott Haven bakery.
Among those arrested: the operation’s alleged leader, Jack Acevedo, aka “Tone,” who prosecutors charged with operating as a major trafficker.
They said Acevedo’s organization controlled drug dealing activity in the vicinity of 3rd Avenue in Mott Haven. Nine “managers” who allegedly worked under Acevedo were also charged, as well as several narcotics suppliers and distributors, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the investigation started in response to community complaints about the “open and notorious” sale and use of narcotics along a busy commercial stretch of 3rd Avenue in Mott Haven, as well as several violent incidents.
Acevedo’s organization allegedly took over a legitimate business, a bakery located at 2785 3rd Avenue, and used it as a hub for drug sales, prosecutors said.
Authorities said they conducted surveillance and saw drug deals occurring openly on the sidewalk, as well as inside the bakery.
Dealers allegedly carried out drug deals in the store from early morning until late in the evening, and hid drugs and money inside the bakery, according to prosecutors.
Afterwords, customers often got high in the immediate area, prosecutors said.
“With tenacious investigative work, we have taken down a sprawling narcotics operation that preyed on a Bronx neighborhood,” said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea.