52 charged in Far Rockaway drug trafficking

Twenty-eight alleged drug dealers have been indicted and nearly two dozen others have been arrested for selling drugs in and around the New York City Housing Authority’s Redfern Houses and the privately owned Dix McBride Apartments, both in Far Rockaway. Forty-five of the individuals charged are in custody and the remaining seven individuals are being sought.
The defendants — who range in age from 17 to 54 and who include one purported member each of the Bloods and Crips street gangs — are charged with selling crack and powdered cocaine and marijuana to undercover police officers on more than 200 separate occasions over a seven-month period.
“This initiative — known as Redfern II — is another in our continuing campaign to stop the plague of drug-dealing and drug-based violence in the Far Rockaway section of Queens County,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “The quality of life of the residents of Far Rockaway has always been among my chief concerns as District Attorney. These arrests should put another dent in the drug trafficking and drug-related violence which has long plagued the residents of Far Rockaway. We will continue to work together with our police officers and our elected public officials and community leaders to keep the residents — and particularly the children — of Far Rockaway safe and to help provide them with a better quality of life.”
Brown added, “This is not alleged to be a well-organized group of drug dealers but an infestation of individual drug peddlers — some of whom worked together — who descended on the Redfern and Dix McBride Houses and who operated an open air drug market. Almost half of the defendants charged live outside the two housing developments. Their only purpose for coming to the developments is alleged to have been to sell their drugs. In fact, nearly one-quarter of the sales allegedly occurred near a day care center attended by children between the ages of two and five.”
The investigation commenced in January of this year when detectives assigned to the NYPD’s Queens Narcotics Division received information regarding drug dealers and drug-related violence around the Redfern Houses and the Dix McBride Apartments. In response, the Narcotics Division and District Attorney Brown’s Narcotics Investigation Bureau dispatched numerous undercover officers to purchase crack and powdered cocaine and marijuana. During the course of the investigation, undercover officers purchased narcotics and marijuana on 209 separate occasions.
Sixty of these alleged sales occurred near the Rockaway Child Care Center, a day care facility located at 14-66 Beach Channel Drive. The center, which is operated by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, cares for 45 children between the ages two and five. Fourteen of the 45 defendants arrested are charged with selling drugs near school grounds.
Under the Trespass Notice Program, which is part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Operation Safe Housing initiative, non-resident suspects arrested for drug dealing on public housing grounds receive a notice informing them that they are banned from New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property anywhere in the city and will be arrested if they return. If the suspected drug dealer is a NYCHA resident, an eviction proceeding will commence and when completed, the dealer will be forced to leave his or her apartment. Of the 45 defendants arrested, 18 have been charged with Trespass Affidavits and seven locations have been targeted for eviction proceedings.
Brown noted that since January, there have been eight individuals wounded in seven separate shooting-related incidents in and around the Redfern/Dix McBride area. One victim, Raquan Elliott, also known as “Stacks Bundles,” an aspiring rapper, was killed.
In addition to the arrests, officers executed nine court-authorized search warrants and recovered two loaded handguns, two air rifles, a gravity knife, various quantities of cocaine and marijuana and assorted drug paraphernalia, including four crack pipes.
The defendants are variously charged with numerous counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, punishable by up to nine years in prison; criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, punishable by up to 15 years in prison; criminal sale of marijuana in the fourth degree; criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree; criminally using drug paraphernalia; obstructing governmental administration, punishable by up to one year in jail; unlawful possession of marijuana; and disorderly conduct, violations punishable by a fine of up to $100.