Astoria Residents Arrested In Drug Ring
By DOMENICK RAFTER
District Attorney Richard Brown announced 12 people have been arrested for running a Long Island-sized illegal drug ring.
The defendants, Brown said, sold illegal narcotics in Queens to customers, mostly in Suffolk County, “virtually turning the Long Island Expressway into a ‘heroin highway.’”
“In carrying out drug sales, it is alleged that customers– including 90 from Suffolk County and 15 from Nassau County who were arrested in the investigation– would call the main dealer, drive into New York City and meet the dealer’s runners at various locations in the city – including hotels, restaurants, diners, electronic stores and even a 99-cent store – in an effort to thwart surveillance,” Brown explained.
The alleged ringleader was identified as Jermel Broadhurst of Astoria. Others facing various charges include Broadhurst’s cousin, Shandell Crabb of Brooklyn, and his girlfriend, Chelene Nelson of Astoria, as well as Kenneth Kirkland, Melissa Franqui, Denise Martinez, Carmen Donatiu, Esteban Bello, Wilfred Ortiz and Patrick Fortune, all of Brooklyn.
According to the investigation, officers seized more than 8,000 glassine envelopes of heroin, more than five kilograms of heroin, 2.7 kilograms of cocaine and five pistols (four of them loaded), a shotgun and an assault rifle during the 14-month investigation.
In addition to the arrests this week, officers executed three court-authorized search warrants and allegedly recovered heroin inside a grinder, scales, packaging, a loaded semi-automatic pistol, as well as various quantities of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs. The suspects would talk to customers, who would drive from the eastern end of Long Island to pick up the illegal drugs, and warn them of possible police surveillance and chose the meeting locations because they perceived them to be safe. The customers were under surveillance, however, and more than 100 of them were arrested by the NYPD over the last 14 months and officers and Brown’s office sought to bust the 100-mile long drug ring. Most of the suspects were from Suffolk County, with a handful from other places including Nassau County, Queens, Upstate New York and New Jersey.
Through court-authorized wiretaps, investigators learned that the defendant allegedly arranged hundreds of controlled substance transactions by directing customers to various locations in Queens, including a Sunnyside hotel and a Subway restaurant in Woodside where associates Crabb, Kirkland, Fortune and others allegedly delivered the drugs to the customers.
The suspects are charged with various crimes, the most minor being against Martinez, for allegedly acting as a lookout, to the most serious being against Broadhust. He, Crabb, Kirkland and Kirkland’s father Marcos Feliciano, are facing weapons-related charges stemming from a Nov. 14, 2011 bust where Broadhurst allegedly attempted to store an assault rifle at Felicano’s house in Far Rockaway. They face anywhere from a year in prison for the least serious charge to 25 years to life in prison for Broadhurst.
Reach Reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400 Ext. 125.