NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City apartment was used to cook crystal meth on a scale usually only seen in non-urban settings, authorities said Wednesday.

NBC NEW YORK- 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.

ABC- A year ago, the U.S. was in the grips of an epidemic — the scourge of opioid addiction, with more than 70,000 lives lost to drug overdoses in 2019, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

LOHUD- During the coronavirus pandemic, the drug business boomed, users died more than ever before and violence surged. America saw the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period between May 2019 and May 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PIX 11- THE BRONX — With thousands of Americans dying of COVID-19 every day, two other killers are lurking in the shadows of coronavirus headlines: methamphetamines and fentanyl.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Three people have been arrested in connection with a drug trafficking ring in Queens.

New York Daily News- Two apartments in a West Bronx building were converted into a major drug distribution center, prosecutors charged Thursday, announcing the seizure of 30 pounds of heroin and fentanyl worth $2 million.

New York Times – Jackie Ré, who runs a substance-use disorder facility in New Jersey, gathered the 12 female residents of her center in the living room on March 27 and told them that the coronavirus outbreak had forced the center to limit contact with the outside world.

New York Post – The night he died in 2010, Nicholas Rappold dashed out of his house in Flushing, blowing a kiss to his mom. He said he was going on a date.

(CNN)The US has seen a substantial increase in fatal drug overdoses and set a record for deaths from overdoses in the year that ended in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

PIX-11-QUEENS — Nicholas Rappold was just 21 years old when he was found slumped over in his Jeep near 165th Street in Flushing, Queens, dead from an opioid overdose.

New York Times- BARRE, Vermont — On the first Friday in June, Jefrey Cameron, 29, left his home around midnight to buy heroin. He had been struggling with addiction for seven years but had seemingly turned a corner, holding down a job that he loved at Basil’s Pizzeria, driving his teenage sister to the mall to go shopping and sharing a home with his grandmother. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit.