Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon speaks at an unrelated news conference. His office announced the arrest and indictment of seven men who sold “massive quantities” of illegal drugs Thursday.
Photo by Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
A group of seven men has been arrested and indicted on 39 counts of selling “massive quantities” of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine on Staten Island via an organized, multi-borough criminal network, the borough’s District Attorney Michael McMahon and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday.
Indictments unsealed on Aug. 6 in Richmond County Supreme Court allege the men sold 557 grams of cocaine, 360 grams of heroin and 176 grams of fentanyl over the course of nine months. The arrests were made after a months-long investigation by the NYPD and McMahon’s office, which found the men were allegedly ferrying the illegal drugs from Brooklyn to a home in the Staten Island neighborhood of Eltingville, out of which they sold the narcotics.
“Flooding our borough with deadly, illegal and highly addictive narcotics, these defendants are alleged to have participated in an organized drug-trafficking network which took the lives of multiple Staten Islanders,” McMahon said in a statement. “We are ensuring that these predatory defendants will no longer victimize innocent Staten Islanders in the throes of addiction illness.”
It was not immediately clear who the defendants’ attorneys were. While some names were redacted in the indictment, it’s understood that George Ayoub is charged with twelve counts of selling controlled substances, Jasminda Aguenda is charged with five counts and Paul Polak is charged with 22 counts of the crime.
They could face decades in jail if convicted, with Ayoub facing up to 24 years and Aguenda up to 20 years, according to the district attorney. Ayoub’s bail was set at $1 million in cash and Aguenda’s was set at $250,000 cash. The district attorney did not specify the bail for other defendants.
The district attorney’s office says the investigation was initiated after a series of fatal overdoses occurred in the Great Kills and Eltingville neighborhoods of Staten Island. Ayob, who was identified as the alleged primary supplier during the investigation, had been found to be a person of interest in multiple fatal overdoses and overdose saves.
“After multiple fatal overdoses on Staten Island, our investigators did what they do best: got to work and identified those responsible for harming our communities,” said Tisch. “We will not allow drug traffickers to flood our neighborhoods with these dangerous narcotics without consequence.”
“This narcotics takedown is the result of our long-term investigation into this criminal network, and the skills and diligence of the members of the NYPD who executed it,” she added.