Drug Bust At Baisley Houses In Jamaica

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly have announced the indictment of sixteen individuals and the arrest of fifteen others on a variety of drug-related charges as part of a large scale undercover narcotics investigation at the Baisley Park Housing Development in Jamaica.
The defendants, who range in age from 18 to 58, are charged with selling powdered and crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana to undercover police officers on more than 80 separate occasions over a seven-month period in and around the Baisley Park Houses. Eight of the defendants are charged with at least one count of selling drugs within a drug-free school zone.
The investigation began last summer when detectives assigned to the NYPD’s Queens Narcotics Division received information that drug dealers were engaged in operations around the Baisley Park Houses. In response, the NYPD’s Queens Narcotics Division and District Attorney Brown’s Narcotics Investigation Bureau dispatched numerous undercover officers to purchase crack and powdered cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
In addition to the arrests, officers executed five court-authorized search warrants and recovered 2 ounces of cocaine, 8 ounces of marijuana, $2,000 in cash, two 9mm handguns, two shotguns and a .38 caliber revolver that had been thrown from an apartment window as police executed an arrest.
The Baisley Park Housing Development, located at 164-01 Foch Boulevard in Jamaica, is part of the New York City Housing Authority’s network of housing developments. Approximately 1,000 people reside in 378 apartments.
The indicted defendants are variously charged in twelve separate indictments with numerous counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, a Class A II felony punishable by up to ten years in prison; criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds, both Class B felonies, each punishable by up to nine years in prison; and criminal sale of marijuana in the fourth degree, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.