A major drug bust resulted in the arrest of four Queens residents, including a Long Island City man who stashed thousands of dollars and a loaded gun in his luxury condo he allegedly purchased with drug money.
Dionne “Slay” Sharrow, Pablo “Cito” Vallecillo, Antonio Lopez and Jason Keating were arrested on April 11 after a year-long investigation conducted by the NYPD’s Narcotics Borough Queens South Major Case.
According to Bridget G. Brennan, the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, the four men allegedly supplied heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana to drug distributors in New York City and upstate New York. The investigation was sparked by the fatal overdoses of a 22-year-old Brooklyn man in September 2016 and a 42-year-old Kew Gardens man in May 2017.
Sharrow, the Long Island City resident, had a drug stash house in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, where drug deals were conducted, police said. The drug dealers referred to the house as the “Palace.”
Police conducted the investigation from September 2017 through April 2018 when they discovered Sharrow was supplying drugs to Vallecillo and Keating, of Jamaica, and Lopez, of Howard Beach. The men sold heroin, fentanyl and cocaine to drug dealers in Brooklyn, Queens, Ulster County and Orange County.
At about 8 p.m. on Tuesday, police saw Vallecillo entering the Brooklyn location with a backpack and conducted a search where they found Sharrow and another person inside. They found 10 kilograms of drugs in an oven and hidden compartments in a couch, police said.
They also found thousands of dollars in cash, several pounds of marijuana, a kilo press used to package narcotics and a money counter. Vallecillo’s backpack also contained cash.
On the same night, police conducted a search on the Long Island City apartment at 2-17 51st Ave. Inside they found a loaded gun; approximately $59,000 in a safe; backpacks and drawers; and a 2015 Lamborghini Huracán that belonged to Sharrow in a garage next to the apartment building.
Keating was arrested in his Jamaica home at 100-29 205th St. where cops found several pounds of marijuana and cash. Lopez, who lives at 102-02 163rd Dr. in Howard Beach, was arrested in his home after cops found hundreds of glassine envelopes of heroin, two loaded pistols and a shotgun.
The men are facing second-degree conspiracy, first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and other charges.
This is the second phase of the investigation after police connected Vallecillo to the head of a drug delivery service, Eduardo Ansorena. Ansorena, who sold drugs at the JFK Inn motel parking lot, sold drugs to the two men who fatally overdosed in Brooklyn and Kew Gardens. Police found that he bought those drugs from Vallecillo.
“The escalating toll of overdose and addiction has become unbearable to all but the drug dealers and traffickers who peddle death in $10 bags,” Brennan said. “As this investigation demonstrates, drug crimes are far from victimless and we will be relentless in pursuing those who profit from destroying the lives of others.”
