By Kevin Deutsch

For an accused Riverdale heroin packager and his cohorts, Build-A-Bear dolls weren’t just cuddly additions to their Bronx safe house. The seemingly innocuous toys were a clever way to transport about $40 million worth of South American smack across the tristate area, state authorities said.

Socrates Lopez, 38, of the 6000 block of Riverdale Avenue, and 11 other Bronx residents were arrested Friday as part of a massive heroin bust after agents executed warrants at five Bronx locations — including one at 6535 Broadway — and seized 33 pounds of heroin, $150,000 in cash, drug paraphernalia and other incriminating items. The group is accused of processing heroin, hiding the drugs inside the toy bears and supplying them to distribution organizations in New York City and New Jersey.

Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force said they entered the suspects’ safe house on Carpenter Avenue — from which the suppliers were allegedly moving thousands of squareinch plastic bags full of heroin each week — and caught them in the act of packaging drugs. Build-A-Bears sat nearby, ready to be sliced open and stuffed with heroin before being re-stitched and shipped out, authorities said.

The DEA identified the ringleader of the Bronx operation as Yeffrey Alba, 28, of the 700 block of Pelham Parkway. He and the other suspects, who range in age from 26 to 39, are charged with conspiracy, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.

“To transport heroin, which is poison to our children, in teddy bears is an indication of how those arrested devalued the life of our children,” said John P. Gilbride, special agent in charge for the New York division of the DEA, adding that heroin use is rising in the tri-state area.

In the apartment at 6535 Broadway, authorities found a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, documents, and a dresser containing a hidden compartment. The Riverdale residence was part of what Mr. Gilbride called “a poisonous death mill.”