Photo Courtesy of Google
Parreno and Mustiga’s stash house was located at 142-06 Pershing Crescent in Briarwood.
By Forum Staff
Eleven people have been indicted by a Queens grand jury and four of the accused have been additionally charged in criminal complaints for their roles in a network of dealers who supplied a variety of drugs to buyers in New York City and beyond between December 2020 and December 2021, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced.
Utilizing surveillance, undercover buys and Court-authorized eavesdropping warrants, the District
Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau along with the NYPD’s Queens Violent Crime Squad conducted a lengthy investigation leading to the arrests of the 11 defendants, as well as the seizure of cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl, six handguns, an assault rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, ammunition and other items.
Katz said this investigation began by looking into the activities of defendants Jason Hibbert and Troy Greene. Undercover detectives posing as “buyers” met with Hibbert on seven different occasions and allegedly bought drugs. Greene allegedly sold drugs to a “buyer” on eight separate meets.
Hibbert, 35, of Dillon Street; Greene, 38, of 173rd Street; Kwansia Frasier, 44, of Jamaica Avenue, all of
Jamaica, Queens; and Kevin Joseph, 50, of South Long Beach Avenue in Freeport, Long Island, were all arraigned on Wednesday on a 68-count indictment before Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis. These four defendants were ordered to return to Court on January 25, 2022.
According to the charges, Hibbert and Greene allegedly set up a stash house on Liberty Avenue where customers visited frequently to buy drugs. The clientele developed code words to make buys, such as using the phrase “pieces of cake” to indicate the specific drug desired. Another defendant, Luis Parreno, allegedly made drug deliveries to buyers throughout Queens and the Bronx, as well as in Nassau County.
DA Katz said that the court-authorized eavesdropping warrant picked up various conversations regarding buying and selling drugs over the course of the investigation. On one of these calls, defendant David Mustiga allegedly talked with co-defendant Jose Torres about buying two kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico for $25,000 per kilo.
In July, police executed a court-authorized search warrant for the home of defendant Torres on Waldo
Avenue in the Bronx. Law enforcement recovered the following items allegedly from Torres’ residence: a loaded .45-caliber pistol, a loaded defaced .380-caliber pistol, ammunition, over $13,000 in cash, three kilograms of controlled substances and other items.
In August, police executed a Court-authorized search warrant for the home of co-defendant Luis Parreno on 97th Avenue in Queens. Law enforcement recovered the following items allegedly from Parreno’s residence: over $20,000 in cash, over five kilograms of controlled substances and other items. Court-authorized search warrants were also executed on two vehicles registered to Parreno and controlled substances were allegedly also found inside a hidden compartment in each vehicle.
Concurrent court-authorized search warrants were also executed on the home of another co-defendant David Mustiga on Jamaica Avenue. Law enforcement recovered a quantity of controlled substances and other items allegedly from inside the location.
Law enforcement also recovered two high-capacity magazines and a loaded assault rifle from defendant
Edwin Hernandez, in front of Parreno and Mustiga’s stash house, located at 142-06 Pershing Crescent in Briarwood.
Mustiga, Parreno, Torres, and Perez have each been charged with operating as major traffickers in this investigation.