Four individuals were arrested following a wiretap investigation into a narcotics distribution conspiracy that allegedly funneled fentanyl, crack cocaine, cocaine, and counterfeit pills from Upper Manhattan to Staten Island. Accused ringleader Shanta SAWYER is charged with conspiring with his wife Sophia ABINACER, Michael GIORDANO, and Philip PIETRUNTI, to supply illegal narcotic drugs to dozens of customers on Staten Island.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan announced the sentencing of Victor ROSARIO ARIAS, the last of three defendants to be sentenced following their convictions by jury for operating a high-level fentanyl packaging and distribution operation centered in Borough Park, Brooklyn. At a sentencing proceeding in New York County Supreme Court late yesterday afternoon, ROSARIO ARIAS was ordered to serve a combined 15 years in prison and 5 years of post-release supervision on charges of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First and Third Degrees, and Conspiracy in the Second Degree.

Law enforcement officers disrupted an active fentanyl packaging mill in a first-floor apartment in the Williamsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Three adults were arrested and a two-year-old child was found inside the apartment. Approximately two kilograms (four pounds) of alleged fentanyl mixtures with a street value of over half a million dollars were recovered from the residence and a bag that one defendant carried out of the apartment. Tens of thousands of individual dose glassine envelopes were seized, including some stamped with an image of a goat and the brand name “G.O.A.T. Greatest of all Time.”