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Man found with 20K rainbow-colored fentanyl pills in trendy NYC neighborhood released without bail

November 14, 2022 | | Print Article

If you want to know why fentanyl is killing so many of our nation’s youth, look no further than the case of Manuel Pagan, 49, who was arrested in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood with 20,000 rainbow-colored M-30 pills on Friday and promptly released back onto the streets without bail.

Manhattan Judge James Clyne freed Pagan, who was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, despite changes to the state’s disastrous criminal justice reforms that would have allowed bail to be set, the New York Post reports.

The city’s Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, which is handling the case, requested at his arraignment that the drug dealer be held on $100,000 cash bail or a $250,000 bond, but Clyne let him go with nothing but a promise that he’d comply with the terms of a “supervised release” and return for a court date on December 15.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is “a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.”

Insanely addictive, the drug is often added to other street drugs, such as heroin, to increase its potency. As heroin addicts often do not realize their drug of choice has been cut with a far more powerful drug, the tragic result is often overdose and death.

But increasingly, dealers are targeting the younger crowd, according to police, pushing pills that look like candy, such as the ones in Pagan’s possession.

Still, with the Biden administration’s refusal to take control of our open border to the South, the deadly drug keeps flowing into the nation and sold on the streets under such catchy names as “China Girl,” “Dance Fever,” and “Tango & Cash.”

As BizPac Review reported, an unprecedented 10,500 lbs of the drug were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in 2021, and, in 2022, the record for most fentanyl seized in a single year was shattered, with 12,000 lbs. seized by agents so far this year.

In the days leading up to Halloween, 15,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Skittles and Nerds were seized in Maryland as part of an undercover operation, and another 15,000 rainbow fentanyl pills were hidden under LEGO blocks and brought into New York City.

Also in October, the DEA made its biggest Big Apple bust to date.

“Last month, a DEA task force carried out the largest fentanyl bust in New York City history, dramatically surpassing the previous record – which was broken just days prior,” the Daily Mail reports. “Around 300,000 rainbow fentanyl pills and 22 pounds of the drug in powdered form – with a combined street value of $9 million – were seized from an apartment in the Bronx.”

But none of this seemed to matter to Judge Clyne, who has a history of letting questionable people roam free.

Last year, Clyne released Augustin Garcia, a 64-year-old “troubled” homeless man, without bail after he allegedly stole a twelve-pack of Coors Light from a bodega in the Bronx, The Post reports. The cops released him with a desk-appearance ticket, only to see him allegedly pull a knife on a subway rider and steal the person’s backpack a few hours later.

When arrested, Garcia told the police, “I know I’m getting out, I have no record.”

Eventually, he ended up in front of Clyne, who freed him on supervised release, just as Pagan was released.

Hours after that, Garcia stole another straphanger’s iPhone and was ultimately held by another judge for a psych evaluation.

Melissa Fine
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