NEW YORK – A coordinated multi-agency law enforcement strike In "Operation Rotten Apple" shuts down a vast drug operations in two public housing projects in the Bronx

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Ray Kelly, the Commissioner of the Police Department for New York City and officials of several related state and federal agencies, announced today the unsealing of six Indictments charging 53 members of heroin and crack cocaine trafficking rings in the Morrisania Section of the Bronx.

During a long-term proactive investigation dubbed "Operation Rotten Apple," federal and local law enforcement officers working with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office used confidential informants, undercover officers, and federal wiretaps to infiltrate drug trafficking crews that controlled the distribution of heroin and crack cocaine in and around the Melrose and Andrew Jackson public housing projects.

In a coordinated strike earlier Wednesday, 450 officers and agents from the NYPD, ATF, DEA, and the United States Marshals Service, supported by DOI, arrested 37 defendants. Three defendants are already in custody on unrelated charges. The rest of the defendants are still being sought.