'American Dream' Drug Bust: 20 Arrested in Bed-Stuy: Prosecutors

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Bed-Stuy dealers that sold Statue of Liberty-branded drugs were arrested Thursday after a New Jersey mom died of an overdose on the G train, prosecutors said. Twenty people were arrested after a year-long investigation into the drug ring that sold heroin and fentanyl with an “American Dream” logo out of the Tompkins Houses, according to a statement from New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s office.

Investigators began wiretapping the suspects’ phones in February after three overdoses in December and January were linked to the Statue of Liberty-stamped drugs, said prosecutors.

One overdose victim was a 33-year-old New Jersey mother who was found on a G train at the Church Avenue stop by an MTA conductor Dec. 29 at about 11 p.m., prosecutors said.

The woman had five envelopes stamped with the “American Dream” logo and filled with heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Police first became aware of the gang when one of its members sold the patriotically branded drugs to an undercover police officer near Myrtle Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard in September 2016.

The gang’s leader, Akeem “AK” King, orchestrated the drug sales that centered around the stash he kept at 212 Throop Ave. in the Tompkins Houses.

King oversaw a gang of at least 14 dealers who sold thousands of glassine envelopes of heroin in NYCHA houses across Brooklyn.

Dealers used coded language to alert one another that police were nearby.

King told one suspect “play a little chess” with police officers in the same building where he was dealing drugs on March 25.

The suspect, who remains at large, replied, “Yeah, play some real Beethoven chess with them.”

King bought the drugs in $10,000 batches from Robert Gonzalez, who also sold his product to Darren “Ice” Lee, the man belied to have provided the heroin that killed the New Jersey mother.

Police arrested Gonzalez, who was carrying 5,000 envelopes of heroin, on Myrtle Avenue on Oct. 12.

When investigators searched Gonzalez’s home at 1380 Bushwick Ave., they found 1,200 envelopes of “American Dream heroin, $19,000 cash and a baby.

Lee, who sold his product from a Bed-Stuy barber shop, was arrested on Dec. 1 when he tried to sell drugs to undercover detectives.

King and 14 others were arrested and investigators seizure of a loaded firearm and more than $65,000 this week.

The defendants are expected to be arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Thursday afternoon.

The defendants named in the indictment were Robert Gonzalez, 40, Akeem “AK” King, 28, Nathan “Biggie” McDonald, Karina “Cookie” Morla, 28, Kenny Gregory, 59, Kenneth “Los” Austin, 25, Melvin Griffin, 29, Frontis “Flave” Braxton, 34, Curtis Wright, 31, Gregory “Skucci” Haynes, 30, Anthony Williams, 53, Jeffrey Williams, 52, Raymond Warlick, 53, Carmen Vasquez, 45, Darren “Ice” Lee, 50, Orrin “Rosco” Vanderhorst, 54, Juan Gonzalez, 58, and Jose “Wolf” Orta, 38.

Gonzalez and King are charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker, the only state narcotics offense that carries a possible life sentence.

Photos courtesy of the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor For the City of New York