HIGHBRIDGE — Members of a South Bronx drug gang including Cicero "Boobie" Williams, Eduardo "Lil Bro Ed" Rosa and Keith "Baldy" Nesbitt have been arrested and accused of turning a portion of the borough into a supermarket for illegal drugs.
A total of 22 members of "Flybridge," a drug trafficking crew based out of 165th Street and Woodycrest Avenue in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx, have been indicted on drug and firearm charges, officials said.
Members conspired to sell drugs including crack cocaine, heroin and oxycodone out of restaurants, convenience stores and apartments in the neighborhood and used violence to protect their business, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Defendant Jonathan "G" Perez got into a shootout with rival drug dealers on the Major Deegan Expressway in March 2014, for instance, while defendant Kenneth "Montana" Lacen bragged about trying to shoot someone over a drug debt in March of this year, officials said.
Montana said the only reason he wasn't able to kill his target was because his gun jammed, according to court documents.
"Word on my mother, if my s--t would've never jammed, bro, I would've killed him," he said, according to court papers. "He woulda been dead. I woulda been damned for the body right now."
Perez personally sold crack to customers and got frustrated with Rosa in June for not selling enough drugs, asking him, "How you only sell like five and I send you mad sales?" according to the indictment.
Several other members of Flybridge stored guns in their portion of the neighborhood to help protect their turf, officials said.
All 22 defendants have been charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and face a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"With the indictment of 22 alleged members of a violent drug trafficking group, we seek to stem the flow of drugs and the cycle of violence in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
