The open-air “Pill Street” market in Washington Heights has been shut down.
NYPD officers moved in Tuesday to break up a brazen street-level prescription drug bazaar, just days after an exclusive Post exposé documented dealers openly selling medications with little apparent fear of consequences.
At least six police vehicles converged on the sprawling sidewalk operation along West 181st Street, prompting vendors to scatter with their pill stashes in hand.
“Why are they doing that?” one passerby asked as the police presence unfolded.
“Because they are not paying their taxes,” another onlooker joked.
The illicit market was spotlighted in a Post report Saturday that described nearly two dozen vendors selling a wide range of drugs — including painkillers, erectile dysfunction pills and antibiotics — across a 10-square-block stretch from West 179th to West 183rd streets and St. Nicholas Avenue.
Even as storm clouds rolled in Tuesday, dealers were still hawking pills, while neighborhood resident Carlos Martinez dismissed the scene as a familiar fixture.
“They have the same things on the street and on the pharmacy,” he said.
One dealer hawked pills and cream variously from Honduras and the Dominican Republic for $5, much lower than the prices listed on the bottles, which were as high as $30.
Another sold vitamins from Walgreens and CVS, in addition to other items he said were from Africa.
The pills-for-all came to a sudden halt as someone ran up West 181st Street near Wadsworth Avenue shouting in Spanish, “Police! Police!”
One man bundled most of wares in a sheet, tied it up and threw it on the sidewalk. Other vendors ran as cops swarmed.
The police officers hauled the remaining goods — merchandise, milk crates, umbrellas and folding chairs — and tossed them into a sanitation truck.
One worker from a nearby store came out to watch.
“They could kill people,” she said, referring to the pills.
