Trio of Bklynites arrested in
bust of national heroin ring
CAUGHT: Police on Monday arrested
a Bushwick man for destroying
these statues outside a Williamsburg
church on Dec. 2. NYPD
COURIER L 16 IFE, DEC. 14–20, 2018 DT
BY JULIANNE CUBA
Three Williamsburg men
could spend the rest of their
lives behind bars after the
Feds last 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 fl agrant 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-traffi cking 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 offi cials
on Dec. 5 stormed the Brooklynites’
homes — along with
those of their alleged accomplices
living in the Bronx,
Manhattan, Queens, and Hawaii
— cuffi ng all seven individuals,
and walking out of
the residences with roughly
150 grams of heroin, 350
glassine envelopes fi lled with
the drug intended to be sold
on the streets, more than fi ve
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.
Offi cials discovered that
the septet communicated
nearly 2,000 times while distributing
the heroin — whose
potency they often bragged
about, calling it “fever” and
“fi re” — 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 fi ve-to-40 years behind
bars, and the Manhattan defendant
faces up to 20 years
in the slammer, according to
the Feds.
BY JULIANNE CUBA
Only god can judge him now.
Cops on Monday cuffed a
guy for peeing on and breaking
two statues outside a Williamsburg
church on Dec. 2.
The 28-year-old Bushwick
resident’s arrest came roughly
a week after Borough President
Adams promised to hand
over hundreds of his own dollars
to leaders of Our Lady of
Consolation Roman Catholic
Church, after the man allegedly
urinated on two statues
and knocked them to the
ground inside the Metropolitan
Avenue house of worship’s
courtyard around 4 am on the
fi rst Sunday of Advent, the
Catholic Church’s four-week
season leading up to Christmas.
Surveillance footage captured
the blasphemous act
— the sixth time in nearly as
many years that suspects vandalized
the church between
Berry Street and Bedford Avenue
— and helped authorities
ultimately locate and cuff
their suspect, according to offi
cials.
Feds: Men dealt drug locally and in Hawaii
Man cuffed
for defi ling
statues