POLICE FIND $100,000 DOLLARS WORTH OF HEROIN IN THE UPPER WEST SIDE APARTMENT WHERE 3 PEOPLE FROM THE SAME FAMILY WAS MURDERED!

More than $100,000 worth of heroin was found in the upper West Side apartment where a gunman killed three men and then plunged to his death, police sources said Friday.
Cops believe the triple murder was drug-related - a small amount of cocaine was also found - but what sparked it was unclear.

They were grilling associates of gunman Hector Quinones, 44, and his former prison buddy, Carlos Rodriguez Sr., 52, one of the three victims of the bloodbath.

Cops said they recovered a .380-caliber Hi Point semiautomatic pistol in the apartment that was bought in Pennsylvania by gun runner Adigun Nicholson, who is now serving federal time.

But ballistic tests did not match the weapon with spent shells of the same caliber found in the apartment. Investigators are still searching for the handgun Quinones used in the deadly shootout, cops said.

Rodriguez Sr. and his son, Carlos Jr., 24, were shot to death. Grandpa Fernando Gonzales, 87, had his throat slit with a 12-inch carving knife, it was revealed.

Quinones and Rodriguez Sr. were in state prison in 1996 and 1997 and had drug convictions.

Cops believe Quinones killed them in the Amsterdam Ave. apartment Thursday afternoon. He was still there when Rodriguez Sr.'s sister, Gisela Rodriguez, 49, and her daughter, Lyanis, 27, walked in just before 2 p.m.

Quinones fired at Gisela, but she was only grazed. Lyanis escaped because Quinones tripped over his baggy pants chasing her.

When police arrived, Quinones jumped out the third-floor kitchen window and tumbled off the fire escape, breaking his neck.

A cousin said the family knew Rodriguez Sr. was involved with "bad people" and told him to be careful. "He didn't listen," the cousin said.