Authorities bust family-run heroin ring in Williamsburg

A family-operated drug ring that netted some $1.5 million in heroin deals was busted by local authorities.

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced most of the 25 people named in the 368-count indictment breaking up the illicit business run out of a Williamsburg apartment were in custody as of Thursday.

One indivudal identired as Walter Simms is expected to surrender to police soon, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said.

“The indictment of these 25 defendants,” Thompson said Thursday, “shows our determination to prevent any more families from being destroyed by heroin.”

Cops also nabbed 16 additional people in the course of the investigation who were customers and couriers for the operation officials said was reportedlyrun by Josie “Fresh”Tavera, 25 from his Driggs Avenue apartment.

The 25 family members and friends identified in the indictment face felony that can each earn up to 25 years in prison, as well as various other possession and sale charges.

Tavera and his family allegedly distributed heroin by hiding the drug inside cereal boxes. Among those arrested were Tavera’s mother and sister, a court employee and an aspiring drug counselor, Thompson said.

Jason Collazo, 36, worked in the Midtown Manhattan Community Court where officials said he used an office phone to coordinate drug sales between himself and Tavera, as well as with other customers in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

One such customer was Staten Island man Michael Mineo, 37, who Thompson said identified himself to police as a drug counselor.

In June, acting Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Master Jr. announced the takedown of another, unrelated heroin ring run by 16 family members.

The city Health Department announced last year that heroin was involved in 54 percent of all overdose deaths in 2013 — the most common substance involved in overdose deaths.