UNION SQUARE — Men dealing balloons filled with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, were arrested outside a Disco Biscuits concert at Irving Plaza last week.
Police spotted Alvin Reid, 28, of the Bronx and Michael Riding, 37, of Philadelphia, on separate blocks near Irving Plaza selling individual hits of nitrous oxide to people outside a Disco Biscuits concert on Aug. 20, according to authorities.
Reid was caught on East 15th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue at 1:42 a.m., and Riding was arrested a block up on East 16th Street about ten minutes later, according to police reports.
Both were using laughing gas canisters to fill balloons, which they sold to passersby, according to a criminal complaint and a police spokesman.
Prosecutors charged Reid with unlawful sale of nitrous oxide and unlawful possession of the gas, and police issued Riding a desk-appearance ticket for the same charges. A judge released Reid without bail and he is due back in court on Oct. 18, records show.
It's at least the second time in two years people were arrested for selling the nitrous oxide balloons outside a Disco Biscuits show at Irving Plaza.
In 2014, officers arrested Carlos Holguin, then 22, for selling balloons of the gas to concertgoers as the Philly jam band played inside.
Nitrous sellers are a somewhat common sighting outside concerts — a group of four dealers were busted outside a Ween concert at Terminal 5 in April — but the arrests outside Irving Plaza revealed something of a trend when it comes to people slinging laughing gas near Disco Biscuits shows.
In a 2010 Village Voice article examining the so-called “Nitrous Mafia,” the story opens with a nitrous dealer selling balloons outside a Disco Biscuits show outside Brooklyn Bowl.
Disco Biscuits and a representative of Irving Plaza — which was the site of a deadly shooting in May — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nitrous users typically inhale the gas for its euphoric and dizzying side effects, according to the online drug database Erowid.
