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Police Use Grindr Dating App to Track Down Stuy Town Meth Dealer, NYPD Says

 A Stuy Town resident was caught selling more than half an ounce of methamphetamine to undercover police, according to court documents.
A Stuy Town resident was caught selling more than half an ounce of methamphetamine to undercover police, according to court documents.
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DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

MANHATTAN — A meth dealer was arrested after police tracked him down through the gay dating app Grindr and raided his Stuyvesant Town apartment last week, according to authorities.

Harold Gondrez Jr., 55, was arrested on July 21 just after 6 a.m. when officers raided his apartment and found a "large quantity” of methamphetamine and cocaine packaged for sale, according to court documents.

Gondrez sold more than half an ounce of methamphetamine to undercover officers over the course of three separate sales between June 20 and July 12, according to court documents.

Officers found Gondrez through the Grindr app, where he had posted "coded language that the undercover officer recognized as a possible advertisement for drugs," a police source said.

During the raid, police found five small baggies of cocaine, seven bags of meth, five pipes with residue and $4,000 in cash — including some stuffed into a couch, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged Gondrez with two counts of drug sales and two counts of drug possession, according to a criminal complaint. A judge released Gondrez without bail the same day of his arrest, and he is due back in court on Sept. 14, records show.

A lawyer for Gondrez and a representative of Stuy Town owner Blackstone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.