All-Day Times Square Crack Cocaine Market Busted, Feds Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A nonstop, open-air crack cocaine market steps from Times Square has been shut down following the indictment of eight of its leaders, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

From as early as December 2019 through this month, the group sold crack near the corner of West 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue — near Hell's Kitchen, and just a couple of blocks from the heart of Times Square, prosecutors said.

Operating nearly "around-the-clock," the ring's first shift would begin in the late morning and run through the early afternoon, before being relieved by another group of dealers who would work into the night.

Over an 11-day period in March and April of this year, authorities watched the defendants make more than 650 hand-to-hand sales of cocaine, prosecutors said.

The ring was busted after an undercover law enforcement officer purchased crack at the market "on dozens of occasions, including multiple purchases from each defendant," authorities said.

Aaron "Duke" Starks, a defendant who allegedly oversaw the morning shift, was arrested in January 2020 with 312 capsules and 52 twists of crack cocaine, according to prosecutors.

"We recall the bad old days of a much seedier Times Square that was unwelcoming, and we are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those days remain just a memory," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in a news release.

Five more defendants — Johnny "Ghost" Perez, Sekou "Tre" Simpson, Fred "Trinny" Johnson, Davon "Smooth" Mial and Donnell "Mac" Bruns, were arrested on Monday. Two others — Frayvon "Harlem" Young and Robert Mason, are still at large, prosecutors said.