Six men, including two from Queens, were charged on Wednesday for allegedly selling heroin throughout Brooklyn, prosecutors announced.
On Jan. 16, Alex Aybar, 47, of Bayside, and Ramon “Junior” Sanabria, 48, of South Ozone Park, were arrested for their alleged roles in a heroin distribution ring that acted throughout Brooklyn and elsewhere. Three East New York men, Dino “Dinito” Sanchez, 40, Raliek “Burger” Brown, 36, and Rogelio “Macho” Vargas, and one East Rockaway man, Melvin “Mel” Sanabria, 42, were also arrested on similar charges.
If convicted, all six defendants face 10 years to life in prison.
“As alleged in the indictment and complaint, these defendants distributed high purity heroin in our communities, with life-threatening consequences,” United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said in a Jan. 16 statement. “With today’s arrests, their drug trafficking operation has been dismantled, and the defendants will now face justice for their crimes.”
According to court records, the defendants allegedly acquired kilograms of heroin on a regular basis to process, repackage and distribute on the streets of Brooklyn and elsewhere.
Specifically, Aybar allegedly distributed heroin directly to Vargas and Sanchez, and Sanchez would then provide samples to Melvin Sanabria. Melvin, Ramon Sanabria and Brown would then process and distribute the drugs.
The charges indicated that the defendants allegedly routinely tested the quality of the heroin to ensure it was sufficiently potent. On one occasion, a captured court-authorized message determined that Sanchez allegedly texted co-defendant Melvin Sanabria using coded terms saying he had a “Bentley” and a “phantom” for Sanabria.
Thereafter, in a court-authorized intercepted call, Sanabria complained that a sample that Sanchez allegedly provided was inferior quality, stating, “I don’t rent Hondas or Acuras … around here we drive Benz and Lambos.”
A court-authorized search of Aybar’s, Ramon’s and Sanchez’s residences, as well as the search at two additional stash houses and two vehicles, uncovered four kilograms of heroin, three firearms (including one with a defaced serial number), more than $100,000 in U.S. currency and various drug paraphernalia, including over 10,000 glassine envelopes.
