Williamsburg Drug Ring Stashed Coke, Heroin in Local Barbershop: DA

Pictured, from left: L&L Barbershop; South 5th and Keap streets; 417 Lorimer St. Images via Google Maps

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Eighteen alleged members of a homegrown Williamsburg drug ring used a hole-in-the-wall barbershop on South 4th Street as one of various “safehouses” for heaps of cocaine and heroin, and the corner of South 5th and Keap streets as their main distribution spot, according to a blistering 157-count indictment announced Thursday by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

In a second indictment, also announced Thursday, the DA accused four Williamsburg men, including a father and son, of using a family apartment at 417 Lorimer St. — just a few blocks from the barbershop — to deal crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Cops collected evidence of the 18-person barbershop ring using “electronic, video and physical surveillance,” according to the DA.

The four-man drug ring at Lorimer, on the other hand, incriminated itself by dealing to detectives with the Brooklyn North Gang Squad for months, beginning last summer, the DA said.

Investigators were tipped off to the second ring when a man named Andrew Sanchez was shot outside 417 Lorimer, the DA said. Police suspected the violence to be drug-related.

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A full list of the defendants in the first indictment — included below — shows most of them lived near South 5th and Keap.

The oldest is 30 and the youngest is 17. At least two appear to be female.

According to the DA’s Office, “the defendants conspired to possess and sell heroin and cocaine in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Suffolk County.” And the ring’s alleged ringleaders — Armando Baez, Radames Lopez, Juan Perez and Christopher Rodriguez — “obtained and stored the narcotics in bulk, supervised the repackaging of the narcotics for resale to each other and to wholesale and retail customers, negotiated the terms of the specific sales and sold or directly supervised the drug sales.”

At least 15 of their drug sales were made within 1,000 feet of local schools, the DA said — including Public School 120 at Beaver and Flushing (on the Bushwick-Williamsburg border), Public School 287 at Navy and Flushing in DUMBO (near Fort Greene) and the Bright Horizons Day Care Center at Kent (on the Williamsburg waterfront).

The ringleaders and their runners “allegedly conducted anywhere from 20 to 40 transactions a day, with sales and distribution of approximately $1 million a year,” the DA’s Office said Thursday. “Customers allegedly called the defendants’ cell phones or texted them to arrange to meet.”

A phone number listed for L&L Barbershop, as well as one listed for a small clothing store next to it, were not in service Wednesday morning.

A clerk at the bodega on the corner of South 4th and Keap, a couple storefronts down from L&L Barbershop, said his colleague witnessed the drug bust. Asked if he ever noticed any sketchy activity at L&L or in the area, he said “I don’t know” and hung up the phone.

Indictment No. 1

1. Juan Acevedo, dob: 10-24-89, 184 South 2nd Street, Brooklyn, NY.
2. Christopher Rodriguez, dob: 9-12-91, 258 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY.
3. Santo Heredia, dob: 4-9-1993, 160 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY.
4. Geraldine Collado, dob: 9-25-1988, 50 North 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
5. Tevin Gonzalez, dob: 11-21-1991, 393 Hewes Street, Brooklyn, NY.
6. Britny Bermudez, dob: 6-5-1996, 247 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY.
7. Samuel Gutierrez, dob: 9-7-1998, 932 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
8. Jose Araujo, dob: 9-28-1986, 329 Lexington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
9. Radames Lopez, dob: 10-23-1986, 28 Fleet Walk, Brooklyn, NY.
10. Armando Baez, dob: 3-18-1998, 393 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY.
11. Joshua Bisono, dob: 9-28-1990, 392 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
12. Jesse Bisono, dob: 6-29-1994, 392 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
13. Juan Perez, dob:2-26-1998, 50 North 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
14. Adonis Aracena, dob: 11-1-1994, 392 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
15. Noah Aranzamendi, dob: 8-25-1998, 35 Jackson Street, Brooklyn, NY.
16. Francisco Candelier, dob: 5-6-1998, 160 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY.
17. Frederick Feliz, dob: 3-25-1994, 374 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY.
18. Dioni Vasquez, dob: 3-24-1990, 366 South 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY.

Indictment No. 2

1. Gabriel Mason, dob: 11-5-91, 129 Ten Eyck Walk, Brooklyn, NY.
   
2. Juan Pedraza, dob: 12-12-69, 417 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY.
   
3. Juan Pedraza Jr., dob: 5-30-91, 417 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY.
   
4. Benjamin Vasquez, dob: 11-13-70, 391 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY.