Cash, Guns, Lamborghini Seized In Major NYC Drug Bust: Officials

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- Cash, loaded guns, and a cherry red Lamborghini are just a few of the goodies police uncovered in a drug bust on four Queens traffickers linked to at least two overdose deaths, prosecutors said.

They found the rest - including 22 pounds of narcotics - hours earlier inside the ringleader's Brooklyn "drug palace" prosecutors said. He and three others accused of supplying dealers with heroin, fentanyl and other drugs were arrested in the bust - the result of a yearlong investigation prompted by the two fatal overdoses.

Dionne "Slay" Sharrow, 35, was arrested in his Long Island City luxury apartment after authorities identified him as the group's alleged ringleader, said Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan. Cops seized a loaded gun and nearly $600,000 from his high-rise on 51st Avenue, along with a Lamborghini parked in the building's garage.

Sharrow is accused of supplying heroin, fentanyl and cocaine to the other three suspects, who in turn allegedly sold the lethal drugs to dealers in Brooklyn and Queens, along with a few in Orange and Ulster counties, according to the charges.

“The escalating toll of overdose and addiction has become unbearable to all but the drug dealers and traffickers who peddle death in ten dollar bags," Brennan said.

As the city's drug-related deaths continue to climb, prosecutors claim the ring's drugs - namely heroin and fentanyl - were behind the September 2016 fatal overdose of a 22-year-old Brooklyn man and that of a 42-year-old Kew Gardens man in May 2017.

"Heroin, unfortunately, has made a deadly comeback in New York City and in the surrounding suburbs," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. "We are witnessing heroin being mixed with the synthetic drug Fentanyl, which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin alone."

Police on Tuesday night raided the "drug palace" Sharrow allegedly maintained in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, where they found 22 pounds of narcotics stashed in couches, an oven and other hiding spots throughout the apartment, according to the charges. They also recovered thousands of dollars in cash, several pounds of marijuana and supplies to distribute the drugs.

Cops arrested Pablo "Cito" Vallecillo, 39, at the drug house after watching him carry a bag filled with cash into the apartment, prosecutors said.

Two others - Antonio Lopez, 40, and Jason Keating, 41 - were arrested in their respective Queens homes. Cops recovered a shotgun, two loaded pistols and hundreds of heroin-filled glassine envelopes from Lopez's place in Howard Beach, according to the charges. Inside Keating's Jamaica residence, they seized thousands of dollars and several pounds of marijuana.

"The arrests of these defendants undoubtedly saved the lives of many New Yorkers, who might otherwise have overdosed," said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.

All four were arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday on charges including conspiracy and criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Lead photo via Shutterstock.