An accused major drug trafficker and three others were charged in connection with a large-scale heroin-packaging mill dismantled in Ridgewood, Queens, authorities announced Wednesday.

About 39 kilograms of suspected heroin, with an estimated street value of $12 million, as well as 1,000 fentanyl pills and $200,000 cash were recovered during a joint-investigation conducted by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF) Group T-21, and Homeland Security Investigations in New York.

Luis Martinez, 49, is accused of apparently overseeing a narcotics packaging mill inside his residence Forest Avenue apartment. He faces charges of operating as a major trafficker, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree.

Three women -- Sofia Medina, 50, Maria Altagracia Berroa, 54, and Jacqueline Sosa De Espinal, 43 -- were also charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees, and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree. 

Attorney information for the accused was not immediately known.

On Wednesday, at around 4 p.m., members of NYDETF Group T-21 and Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Investigators Unit were conducting surveillance as part of an investigation when they allegedly observed Martinez, a suspected drug dealer, leaving his Forest Avenue apartment carrying a backpack, according to authorities. Agents stopped Martinez as he walked down the block and allegedly found that the bag allegedly contained about $200,000 cash. Prosecutors also say he was allegedly carrying four cellphones and keys to his Forest Avenue apartment as well.

Subsequently, agents entered the apartment building and knocked on the door of Apartment 2A. Medina eventually opened the door and inside the living room, agents allegedly saw an empty heat-wrapped bag used for wrapping a kilogram of narcotics. Agents, then, allegedly heard noises coming from a closed door and when they opened it they discovered two women, Sosa De Espinal and Berroa, hiding inside a bathroom with the lights off.

According to the prosecutors, one of its two bedrooms was allegedly set up for packaging heroin. It was there that agents found 31 pressed packages, each allegedly containing a kilogram of heroin, and an additional six kilos of loose powder inside plastic containers and bags. 

Additionally, according to prosecutors, there were about 100,000 individual dose glassine envelopes with names --- including "Red Scorpion,” “The Hulk,” “Universal,” “Hard Target,” “Last Dragon, “Dope” and “Venom" -- filled with apparent heroin on a table, as well as empty envelopes and stamps.

Equipment necessary for allegedly packaging heroin was also present in the bedroom, including digital scales, sifters and grinders.

Agents also seized about 1,000 blue pills with marks similar to oxycodone, but which are suspected to be counterfeits containing fentanyl, according to prosecutors. More than 26 cellphones and mail addressed to Martinez were also recovered from the apartment.

Arraignments for the accused took place Tuesday night in Manhattan Criminal Court. The DEA estimates the street value of the alleged drugs recovered at $12 million.

“The shuttering of an assembly line able to pump out millions of street ready heroin packages and deadly counterfeit fentanyl pills will save lives across New York City and our entire region,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement. “The volume of lethal drugs flooding our city is causing record number of overdose deaths. This investigation succeeded because of the expertise and cooperation of our federal and local partners.”

DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan shared similar sentiments.

“Monday evening, we dismantled a highly sophisticated heroin mill in the heart of queens,” Donovan said in a statement. “This drug den contained nearly $12 million dollars’ worth of narcotics and was like an opioid landmine capable of dispersing hundreds of thousands of heroin doses throughout Northeast. I applaud our law enforcement partners on their quick and thorough investigation.”

The results of DEA laboratory analysis on the alleged narcotics in this case are pending.