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Undercover Drug Investigation Nets 12 Arrests in Brownsville, Police Say

By Sybile Penhirin | October 16, 2014 9:52pm
 Undercover Drug Investigation Nets 12 Arrests in Brownsville, Police Say.
Undercover Drug Investigation Nets 12 Arrests in Brownsville, Police Say.
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BROWNSVILLE — A dozen drug dealers that operated out of the Tilden Houses were arrested Wednesday morning as part of a nine month undercover sting operation, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said.

The accused drug dealers, who are between 23 and 51 years old, sold crack cocaine, cocaine, heroine and marijuana about 180 times to undercover policemen before being arrested, prosecutors said.

The investigation, conducted by the NYPD Narcotics Borough Brooklyn North, began in February after the NYPD received several complaints about drug trafficking and violence in and around the Tilden Houses, a NYCHA complex of 16-story buildings located on 282 Dumont Ave. in Brownsville. Most of the people arrested live at the housing complex.

The majority of the purchases were made less than 400 yards from P.S. 284 and P.S. 41, both located at a five-minute walk from the Tilden Houses, the DA's office said, adding that one of the arrested man sold drugs while he was with his 5-year-old daughter.

Jabbar Washington, Amauris Rodriguez, Ernest Dillon, Jeffrey Shepherd, Taronn Sloan, Davon Green, Allen Haynes, Christopher Bullock, Jamel Ralph, Thomas Wigfall, Lawrence Vernon and DeShawn Murden were all charged with selling drugs, among other charges, and face one to nine years in jail.

Four of them already had pending criminal court cases, ranging from domestic violence to misdemeanor and drug charges, when they were arrested on Wednesday, public records show.

Aside from drugs, police also seized a loaded .38-caliber handgun, an unloaded shotgun and shotgun shells when they made the arrests.

All defendants were awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday evening. Their lawyers' names were not immediately available.