Queens Drug Trafficker Sentenced In 'Batman' Heroin Operation

JAMAICA, QUEENS -- A Queens man will spend the next seven years of his life behind bars for trafficking more than 100 grams of heroin in a deadly drug ring out of South Jamaica.

Lamont Moran, 30, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday after he plead guilty in April to running a heroin distribution operation near the Baisley Park Houses in South Jamaica, where he supervised street dealers selling heroin and fentanyl under brand names like "Batman," "Call of Duty" and "Sleepys."

Moran ran the operation from 2015 until he was arrested in September 2016, said Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde.

“The defendant Lamont Moran promoted and profited from the opioid epidemic in our District,” Rohde said. "Today he was held accountable."

According to court records, Moran was linked with the violent street gang "Get it in Stacks" - or "GI$" for short - a South Jamaica branch of the nationwide Bloods gang. Moran used dealers - including at least one GI$ gang member and a handful of elderly heroin addicts - to distribute the heroin and fentanyl near the Baisley Park Houses, but at times doled it out to users himself.

From March 2016 to August 2016, Moran made more than 15 drug deals to an FBI source, several times selling that source fentanyl in place of heroin without telling them, Rohde said. Lamont noted he didn't personally use the drug.

"I don't use this [expletive]. I don't touch this [expletive]...I don't view it as drugs, I view it as money," he told authorities after his arrest.

Moran was sentenced to 7 years in prison followed by four years of supervised probation. He is among four other defendants charged with heroin distribution crimes in this case, each of whom pleaded guilty.

Michael Singletary, 43, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on August 8 for a single incident of heroin distribution. On Oct. 3, 66-year-old David Young - one of Moran's street dealers - was sentenced to 3 years in prison. William Parker, 53, received the longest sentence on Oct. 27 - The Queens career offender will spend 8 years in prison for his role as one of Moran's street dealers. Another Queens street dealer, Dennis Pristell, 57, awaits sentencing.

Lead image via Shutterstock.