By Forum Staff
On Tuesday, in federal court in Central Islip, L.I., the founder and leader of the Route Boys gang, was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and use of firearms in furtherance of drug-trafficking activity.
Jason Liriano, 25, pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2023. Liriano is the last of 10 defendants—including three borough residents—affiliated with the Route Boys gang to be sentenced in connection with charges in a third superseding indictment involving drug distribution, use of firearms, pharmacy burglaries, and ATM thefts. The Route Boys burglarized pharmacies and convenience stores in Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester, and Rockland, as well as in New Jersey and Connecticut from 2020 through June 2022, when they were arrested.
According to federal prosecutors, the Route Boys began committing burglaries in late 2020, breaking into convenience stores, check-cashing businesses, laundromats, and restaurants, stealing primarily cash and tobacco products. In addition, the gang stole free-standing ATMs, forcing them open and stealing the cash from inside the machines, netting tens of thousands of dollars. They then began targeting small “mom-and-pop” pharmacies throughout the Tri-State area by smashing through windows and stealing controlled substances such as oxycodone and promethazine-codeine cough syrup. Liriano possessed a 9mm handgun in furtherance of the drug trafficking operation. They sold the stolen pharmaceuticals on social media immediately after a night of burglaries. The government’s conservative estimate is that the Route Boys committed at least 100 burglaries in the Tri-State area between approximately November 2020 and the summer of 2022. The Route Boys’ crime spree continued after their arrests and incarceration. Some members engaged in witness tampering and possessed illegal cell phones and controlled substances like oxycodone and marijuana while incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and on Rikers Island, and many brazenly posted on social media using the contraband phones (including a photo posted by Liriano declaring “F**k the Feds”). On numerous occasions, including after he pleaded guilty in federal court, Liriano possessed homemade weapons and drugs inside the MDC, and stabbed a fellow inmate with a long shank when the inmate was working as an orderly delivering his breakfast.
Previously, nine other Route Boys members were convicted and sentenced to federal prison, including: Carlos Acevedo to 126 months in prison; Ramon Collado to 132 months in prison; Naresh Deonarrain to 180 months in prison; Devin Lopez-Dominguez to 60 months in prison; Charlie Maisonet to 96 months in prison; Cavier Nedrick to 120 months in prison; Eric Nunez to 144 months in prison; Alberto Santiago, of Queens, to 180 months in prison; and Jeffrey Vargas to 156 months in prison.
“For two years the Route Boys, led by Liriano, engaged in a brazen crime spree targeting local businesses throughout the Tri-State area, stealing money and pharmaceuticals to fuel their illegal drug business, which they protected with threats of violence and illegal firearms,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney John Durham. “These significant jail sentences make our communities safer and are the result of my Office’s collaboration with our law enforcement partners, who are dedicated to the shared mission of protecting local businesses from criminals and holding accountable those who seek to flood our communities with dangerous drugs.”
