25 people have been arrested as part of "Operation Bitter Pill", including eight employees who sold drugs out of Nel Boy Bagels in Great Kills, Staten Island, according to the Staten Island Advance.
A law-enforcement official told the New York Post that deli patrons first noticed something was wrong when many people came into the store and left seemingly empty handed. That's because customers were able to buy not just a bagel with a schmear, but Oxycodone for $20 a pill.
Police began investigating in the fall of 2010, using video and physical surveillance. Undercover detectives from the Staten Island Narcotics Bureau purchase 2,500 Oxycodone, 368 Percocet and 245 Xanax pills, along with 300 grams of cocaine and two firearms from various defendants, according to police. They also seized 100 bags of heroien, eight ounces of marijuana and six vehicles during the sweep.
The NYPD has had a good year busting drug operations with similarly weird fronts. In March, a 'Lickety Split' ice cream truck drug ring that sold pills from the back of the truck was broken up, and in January, three sanitation workers were arrested for selling cocaine and oxycodone with clever, colorful calling cards.