A former NYPD detective is among four people arrested after investigators say they uncovered a drug pipeline running from Washington Heights to Staten Island, with a raid on his Great Kills home turning up 13 unlicensed firearms, including AR-style rifles. Shanta Sawyer, described by authorities as the ringleader, his wife Sophia Abinacer, Michael Giordano and former detective Philip Pietrunti were all arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court this past Friday.
According to a report from silive.com, authorities allege the Upper Manhattan-based operation supplied dozens of Staten Islanders with fentanyl, crack cocaine and counterfeit pills. The NYPD and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office ran a wiretap investigation into the ring from May through October, intercepting communications in which the defendants allegedly used coded language to describe drugs and prices.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the six-month investigation found that the defendants flooded Upper Manhattan and Staten Island with dangerous drugs. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said the operation shut down what she described as a dangerous drug pipeline spanning Upper Manhattan to Staten Island, and that investigators removed narcotics, production equipment and more than a dozen illegal firearms. Brennan also thanked Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon and his staff for their partnership in the case, according to amNewYork.
Predawn Raids Across Two Boroughs
NYPD officers with the Narcotics Bureau took the four defendants into custody at their homes early Thursday, per the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s account relayed by amNewYork. A joint task force raided Sawyer and Abinacer’s Washington Heights apartment around 6 a.m., where officers recovered large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine and heroin from a backpack and a bedroom safe, along with a pill-pressing machine found in the bedroom. Two young children were reportedly present in the apartment during the search…