Pleasant Ridge drug bust nets $1 million heroin/fentanyl mixture

Approximately 21 pounds of heroin/fentanyl mixture was seized. Photos provided by Cincinnati Police Department

Federal agents and Cincinnati police worked together to build a case that they say led to the largest ever opiate seizure in our area. A search warrant was served at a home on Lawndale in Pleasant Ridge On November 21, where police said they recovered 21 pounds of a heroin/fentanyl mixture. The estimated street value of the drugs has been placed at $1 million, police said. Police said they also seized $100,000 in cash.

Police arrested Anthony Penny, 29, whom they believe was the head of a heroin distribution network with possible connections to Mexican cartels.

Police Chief Eliot Isaac celebrated this as a major arrest. “Think about the amount of lives that are probably saved, the amount of violence that’s prevented around the sale of this,” Isaac said. “I know at times the community may feel frustration when they make complaints and they often feel that there’s no result in it, but this is how this type of investigation begins,” Isaac said.

Police said they tried to arrest Penny at his home in Colerain Township, but he got away. He wound up running back to the stash house in Pleasant Ridge, where he was finally arrested.

“Our officers were spit on, they were bit, they were punched, they were kicked – and this is all while he’s in handcuffs,” said Tim Reagan, the resident agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Penny and two other individuals not yet identified were arrested in connection with this investigation.

Penny appeared in Federal Court on November 21, for his initial appearance on charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin and assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

The Cincinnati Police Department District Four Violent Crimes Squad in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Ohio State Patrol, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio executed multiple search warrants in connection with the case.