Locals charged with heroin possession

Four East Meadow residents were among 105 Long Islanders who were arrested during a 14-month undercover probe into a New York City heroin ring, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced on Jan. 13.

Fifteen people from Nassau County and 90 Suffolk County residents were taken into custody on drug possession charges. They were commuting into New York City to buy heroin and other drugs in Queens and elsewhere, Brown said.

Brown had not yet released the names of the four East Meadow residents as the Herald went to press on Tuesday.

The eight alleged members of the drug ring were arrested last week, Brown said. “The main defendants are accused of operating as a tightly knit ring catering almost exclusively to drug buyers from the eastern end of Long Island, virtually turning the Long Island Expressway into the Heroin Highway,” Brown added.

According to Brown, the customers would call the dealer, drive into New York City and meet the dealer’s runners at locations including hotels, restaurants, diners, electronics stores and a 99-cent store in order to avoid surveillance.

“Where there are illegal drugs being sold, guns and violence are never far behind,” said New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “One of the defendants was arrested with a loaded Glock on his way to shoot a customer who owed him money. Another was arrested carrying a loaded AK-47 machine gun. Were it not for the work of the NYPD narcotics detectives and the Queens County district attorney’s office, these dangerous dealers would still plague Queens streets.”

Officers seized more than 8,000 glassine envelopes of heroin, more than five kilometers [KILOGRAMS?] of heroin, 2.7 kilograms of cocaine, five pistols, a shotgun and an assault rifle during their investigation.

A spokeswoman for Brown said that suburban Long Island residents came to Queens to buy heroin because it is cheaper in New York City.

The Queens D.A.’s Narcotics Investigation Bureau and the NYPD’s Queens Narcotics Division began a long-term investigation in November 2010. The alleged ring-leader, Jermel Broadhurst, 30, of Astoria, Queens, was selling heroin and other narcotic drugs in Queens and throughout New York state, Brown said.

If convicted, Broadhurst faces up to 25 years to life in prison.