Three Williamsburg men could spend the rest of their lives behind bars after the Feds this week arrested and charged them for dealing heroin in the neighborhood, elsewhere in the city, and shipping it across the country.
The defendants’ drug operation showed a flagrant disregard for the law, and for the lives of their fellow Brooklynites battling addiction to opioids — which data shows caused 1,075 of the city’s 1,300 drug-overdose deaths in 2016 — according to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“As alleged, the defendants distributed opioids day after day in our community, feeding addiction without regard for the potentially lethal consequences of their actions,” said Richard Donoghue.
The trio, a 29-year-old, 34-year-old, and 27-year-old, were part of a seven-person drug-trafficking ring that packaged, distributed, and shipped more than a kilogram of the deadly narcotic throughout Williamsburg, the Bronx, and Hawaii, according to prosecutors.
Law-enforcement officials on Wednesday stormed the Brooklynites’ homes — along with those of their alleged accomplices living in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Hawaii — cuffing all seven individuals, and walking out of the residences with roughly 150 grams of heroin, 350 glassine envelopes filled with the drug intended to be sold on the streets, more than five pounds of marijuana, other drug paraphernalia, upwards of $20,000 in cash, and more than 150 pairs of sneakers worth thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
Police also found a stolen gun and more than 80 rounds of ammunition in the Queens defendant’s home, according to authorities.
New York’s Finest teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year to start a probe of the defendants, using physical surveillance and authorized wiretaps to monitor their activity.
Officials discovered that the septet communicated nearly 2,000 times while distributing the heroin — whose potency they often bragged about, calling it “fever” and “fire” — across the city, and shipping nearly $7,000 worth to Hawaii over a six-month span, according to the Feds.
If convicted, the Williamsburg men and Queens defendant each face 10 years to life in prison, the Hawaii resident faces five-to-40 years behind bars, and the Manhattan defendant faces up to 20 years in the slammer, according to the Feds.
