More than 70 kilos (154 pounds) of heroin was seized in New York. (Representational Image)
US agents in New York seized a record-breaking $50 million worth of heroin smuggled from Mexico in the biggest such haul in state history, officials announced Tuesday.
The more than 70 kilos (154 pounds) of heroin was seized from a vehicle parked in an upmarket neighborhood of the Bronx, near Horace Mann, one of America's most prestigious private schools.
The drugs were found in 20 packages labeled "Rolex" in a hidden compartment under the floor of a Chevrolet Suburban, prosecutors said.
Federal agents impounded $2 million in cash from under the floorboards of a nearby apartment, and a firearm at a second property.
US officials said it was the largest seizure of heroin by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the state of New York and the fourth largest in the United States.
Suspects Jose Mercedes and Yenci Cruz Francisco have been charged with trafficking and criminal possession, and denied bail.
Two other suspects were arrested last November, prosecutors said.
US officials say Mercedes's trafficking ring served as a main source
of heroin for users throughout New York City, and the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The group received monthly shipments of heroin from suppliers in Culican, Mexico, an area controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel, they added.
"This load was so large it carried the potential of supplying a dose of heroin to every man, woman and child in New York City," said special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
DEA special agent in charge, James Hunt, said the discovery proved that New York was "the bull's eye for drug traffickers."
The DEA has warned against a growing heroin epidemic.
US heroin-overdose deaths rose by 45 percent from 2006 to 2010, and the amount of heroin seized each year on the Mexican border increased nearly four times from 2008 to 2012.
New York had quashed its reputation as the heroin capital of the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.