Cheating on the diet: MP Avenue road plan on hold
DEA grabs $2M in pills at ‘Operation Oxy-Concourse’ crackdown
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR AY 10-16, 2019 3
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Work on the NYC Department
of Transportation’s Vision
Zero ‘road diet’ plan for
Morris Park Avenue was supposed
to begin the last week of
April.
That was before a lawsuit
initiated by Councilman Mark
Gjonaj, the Morris Park Community
Association and various
businesses on the corridor
and subsequent injunction
brought the plan to a screeching
halt on Monday, April 29.
An injunction was issued
by the Bronx Supreme
Court on Thursday, May 2 on
grounds of “community concerns
of the potential damages
that would be caused by
the initiative valid enough to
issue a temporary restraining
order barring the city from
moving forward with its ‘road
dieting’ plan for this vital
commercial corridor.”
Until the status of that injunction
is revisited by the
court on Wednesday, May 29,
Gjonaj and Morris Park businesses
can celebrate their David
vs. Goliath victory over
City Hall.
The councilman met the
MPCA, Community Board 11
Gjonaj celebrates the upheld injunction with the Morris Park Community. Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
chairman Al D’Angelo and
others from the community
on Morris Park Avenue in between
Colden and Paulding avenues
on Friday, May 3 to discuss
the temporary victory.
“This gives the mayor and
the city an opportunity to reapproach
the issue of Morris
Park Avenue,” Gjonaj said.
“Now this time valuing the
long-given input of the community
and reaching something
we can all agree on,” he
continued.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit
Gjonaj and others fi led against
de Blasio, DOT Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg, and DOT
Bronx Borough Commissioner
Nivardo Lopez, was Morris
Park’s ‘last stand’ to stop the
unpopular road diet.
The road diet plan was
overwhelming opposed by a
majority of CB11 members.
A 15-month battle has
raged between Morris Park
and city over its plan to reduce
the four-lane roadway into a
single lane in each direction
while implementing dedicated
turn bays and bicycle lanes on
the bustling business corridor
from Newport Avenue on
the east to Adams Street on
the western tip, while adding
a truck loading zones between
Colden and Paulding avenues,
according to DOT.
In that time, MPCA chairman
Al D’Angelo and CB11
had presented concerns to the
city about side street crowding.
“(If the road diet is approved)
cars will avoid Morris
Park Avenue and create
congestion on our residential
streets,” D’Angelo said.
Prior to inking the lawsuit,
he had presented alternatives
to DOT and the city in an effort
to fi nd a middle ground.
“I suggested staggering
the traffi c ights to dslow down
traffi c,” the chairman said.
“They didn’t want to try that
before spending money on this
road diet,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Gjonaj’s concerns
with the plan are that it
could lead to longer response
times for emergency vehicles
bustling across the major
thoroughfare to neighboring
Jacobi Medical Center and
Montefi ore Hospital.
“Despite valid and overwhelming
community oppo-
Continued on page 91
Some of the recovered pills from operation ‘Oxy-Concourse.’ Twitter of Attourney General Letitia James
BY ALEX MITCHELL
The investigation took almost
a year, but NYS Attorney
General Letitia James and the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
got their man,
actually ‘men,’ seizing over
$2 million worth of drugs,
1,200 oxycodone pills of varying
dosages, while arresting
over two dozen dealers and
pill pushers that were operating
in and around the Bronx
on Thursday, May 2.
The extensive DEA undercover
op was called ‘Operation
Oxy-Concourse’ due to
the high circulation and distribution
of the drug on the
Grand Concourse, according
to the DEA.
The DEA also verifi ed that
the drug ring was operating
in Brooklyn, Westchester and
Connecticut as well.
During the ten-month investigation,
over 23,000 oxycodone
pills were sold by the
alleged dealers, authorities
said.
The twenty-eight suspects
were charged under two indictments
in Bronx County
Supreme Court, leading to
181-counts of conspiracy, crim-
inal sale of a controlled substance,
criminal possession
of a controlled substance and
other charges which carry a
near life sentence in prison.
The investigation included
hundreds of hours of physical
and covert surveillance,
court-authorized wiretapping
of numerous target phones,
and the review of subpoena
compliance including phone
and Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement
records the DEA
said.
During the course of the
wiretapping, conspirators
frequently utilized coded and
cryptic terminology in an attempt
to disguise their illicit
narcotics traffi cking, referring
to prescription pills as
‘footballs’ and describing specifi
c dosages of oxycodone
pills by their color, blue being
the strongest dose.
This case, one of the largest
narcotics crackdowns in
James’ short tenure is being
prosecuted by the state’s Organized
Crime Task Force Assistant
Deputy Attorney General
Thomas Luzio.
“These individuals allegedly
made profi t off of prescription
drugs and traffi cked
tens of thousands of highly addictive
pills throughout New
York City,” said James upon
announcing the drug bust.
“There is zero tolerance for
those who fl ood our communities
with dangerous narcotics
that claim lives,” the AG continued.
One of the accused, Elba
Sanchez, paid to get prescriptions
to purchase large
amounts of oxycodone from
Continued on page 91