22 Arrested In Major Drug Bust At Queensbridge Houses: NYPD

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- A near yearlong investigation surrounding New York City's largest public housing development ended earlier this week in a massive drug bust with nearly two dozen arrests, police announced Thursday.

Cops arrested 22 people on drug sale and weapon possesion charges at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City on Wednesday.

The suspects, all from Queens, were allegedly caught selling heroin, cocaine and marijuana in an 11-month investigation where undercover officers tailed their movement and posing as drug customers, authorities said.

The takedown was a joint effort between narcotics investigators with the NYPD and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. The teams focused their efforts mainly within the Queensbridge Houses' 96 brick residential buildings, which are home to more than 3,100 apartments between 21st Street, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, Vernon Boulevard and 40th Avenue

"This investigation is another example of police and prosecutors working together to reduce drug dealing that too often plagues our neighborhoods," Brown said. "It is imperative that we stop those who would flood our streets with drugs and lure our children into lives of crime."

NYPD Investigator Don Boller told WCBS Newsradio 880 the drug probe began in September 2017 after police noticed violence was on the rise in the massive development.

He said shootings at the Queensbridge Houses went from none in 2016 to five in 2018.

“So we started the investigation because we saw a little spike in violence, and we charged a lot of narcotics there that could be related,” Boller told the radio station.

In addition to the arrests, police recovered four handguns in nine raids during Wednesday's drug bust within the Queensbridge Houses.

"To keep driving crime and disorder down past already record-lows in New York City, it is imperative that we identify and dismantle illegal narcotics organizations like this one," said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.

"The people who live and work in all of our neighborhoods deserve to be safe from drug-dealing and its associated violence."

Lead photo of the Queensbridge Houses via Google Maps/December 2017