{"id":136701,"date":"2026-02-17T22:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136701\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:40:08","slug":"pot-dealers-arrested-for-2021-queens-drive-by-shooting-death-of-customer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136701\/","title":{"rendered":"Pot dealers arrested for 2021 Queens drive-by shooting death of customer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of pot-dealing partners were arrested Tuesday for executing one of their customers during a 2021 Queens drive-by shooting<\/a> that was revenge for being robbed by the victim, the feds announced.<\/p>\n

Rafael Hernandez, 30, and Joibel Perez, 25, offered their customers a menu of marijuana choices, selling strains like \u201cbubblegum gelato\u201d and \u201ccherry pie 41\u201d out of NYCHA\u2019s Taylor\u2013Wythe Houses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, prosecutors say.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 25-year-old victim, Akil Kornegay, regularly bought marijuana from the two men, but in January 2021 that relationship went south because the dealers believed Kornegay owed them money, the feds said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need my bread today,\u201d Hernandez told Kornegay in a flurry of text messages, according to court filings. \u201cYo u playin wit me? \u2026 Boy u ducking me? \u2026\u00a0 U playin kid game wit me that\u2019s a dub.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoibelJoibel Perez (U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney Eastern District of New York)<\/p>\n

Then in February 2021, Kornegay and another person escalated the beef by robbing the two dealers of drugs and cash, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Hernandez and Perez answered that slight with bloodshed, the feds allege.<\/p>\n

Early Feb. 26, 2021, Hernandez and Perez left Perez\u2019s home in Brooklyn, got into a black Infiniti sedan and \u201cstalked Kornegay through the city,\u201d according to a letter filed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

They followed Kornegay as he drove through a residential neighborhood in Queens, and when he stopped at the intersection of Myrtle Ave. and Woodhaven Blvd., the two dealers pulled alongside him and opened fire about 12:45 a.m., prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\"AkilAkil Kornegay was fatally shot in a Chevrolet Malibu sedan at the intersection of Myrtle Ave. and Woodhaven Blvd. in Queens on Feb. 26, 2021. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Kornegay was hit in the chest. He tried to flee but crashed his silver Chevrolet Malibu into a traffic pole.<\/p>\n

Medics rushed Kornegay to Jamaica Hospital, but he couldn\u2019t be saved. He lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, who went by the street names \u201cCap\u201d and \u201cRalphy,\u201d and Perez, also known as \u201cJ.P.,\u201d have both been indicted<\/a> on charges of of narcotics conspiracy, using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, and causing Kornegay\u2019s death through the use of a firearm. They face the prospect of life in prison if convicted at trial.<\/p>\n

\"AkilAkil Kornegay was fatally shot in a Chevrolet Malibu sedan at the intersection of Myrtle Ave. and Woodhaven Blvd. in Queens on Feb. 26, 2021. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants chose to escalate a drug dispute to a deadly act of retaliation,\u201d Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said. \u201cSuch flagrant violence in our communities will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both men pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday afternoon and were ordered held without bail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that the charges will be dismissed against him,\u201d Hernandez\u2019s lawyer Lance Lazzaro said. \u201cIt\u2019s a five-year-old case. What\u2019s changed that they waited so long?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of pot-dealing partners were arrested Tuesday for executing one of their customers during a 2021 Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[98,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":["post-136701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-brooklyn","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}