CHELSEA — This dopey dad was accused of pushing more than a stroller.
The ringleader of a Chelsea drug trafficking operation — which operated in a public housing complex and a playground — hawked heroin out of a stroller carrying his infant daughter and stashed the drugs in her diaper bag, prosecutors said Wednesday after his arrest.
The alleged boss, Epifanio Santiago, 44, of Chelsea, was arrested Tuesday along with David Rodriguez, 18, of Harlem. A third suspect, Carmelo Ortiz, 42, of Chelsea, turned himself in to police on Wednesday morning and Deion Alonzo, 33, of the Upper East Side, was arrested on Aug. 26.
They were charged with selling heroin, cocaine, oxycodone, crack and two firearms from a public housing complex at West 23rd Street and Ninth Avenue and playground near P.S. 33, authorities said.
During Santiago's largest observed sale on June 23, he brought his infant daughter along and hid $4,000 worth of heroin and cocaine in her stroller diaper bag, prosecutors said.
Santiago was also charged with child endangerment for allegedly bringing the young child along on the sale.
Authorities have been probing the group since April after receiving complaints about gang and drug activity in the neighborhood.
The alleged dealers were awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon.
The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan is handling the case.
