{"id":347854,"date":"2026-09-16T00:28:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/347854\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:28:57","slug":"washington-square-park-drug-kingpin-and-his-yellow-bag-boys-ran-wild-wall-street-worthy-operation-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/347854\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Square Park drug kingpin and his ‘Yellow Bag boys’ ran wild Wall Street-worthy operation: insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

A drug kingpin raked in nearly $40,000 a month<\/a> running a Wall Street-worthy operation near Washington Square Park \u2014 hiring worker bees for set shifts and twice the number of managers to oversee them, it was alleged in court Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Justin Barry, an ex-drug con, testified in Manhattan federal court<\/a> about the intricate inner workings of the open-air market allegedly operated by John Livigni \u2014 who he claimed was responsible for the famous Manhattan park\u2019s notorious yearslong drug problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met him on West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue,\u2019\u2019 Barry said of the accused prolific dealer, who allegedly peddled heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine and is now charged in two drug-related deaths over a six-month span in 2025.<\/p>\n

A disturbed man stands with his pants down in the drug section of Washington Square Park in Manhattan last fall. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Manhattan park is notorious for drug users. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

John Livigni allegedly runs the open-air market. U.S. Attorney’s Office | Southern District of New York<\/p>\n

One of the people allegedly killed by Livigni\u2019s drugs was an 18-year-old \u201crising star\u201d Colorado transplant<\/a> who had just arrived in the city to work in a Broadway-linked internship program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold drugs over there,\u201d Barry said of the hip neighborhood, which was allegedly territory for Livigni, who he claimed headed up the \u201cYellow Bag Boys\u201d \u2014 a nickname for the crew that dealt crack in yellow bags around the park.<\/p>\n

Livigni\u2019s trial kicked off as federal prosecutors branded him as the \u201cleader\u201d of a ring that dealt countless amounts of drugs for at least two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant was a leader of a drug conspiracy that sold deadly illegal drugs around Washington Square Park,\u201d Assistant United States Attorney Remy Grosbard said in her opening statements.<\/p>\n

Sixth Precinct police officers arrest a man on drug charges in the park in October. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

Bags of crack cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and money seized during the arrest of Justin Barry. U.S. Attorney’s Office | Southern District of New York<\/p>\n

Barry, a recovering addict who first started working for Livigni in July 2023, brought jurors into the world of the alleged drug operation, explaining how to decipher what type of drugs were what based on their packaging \u2014 and explaining how lucrative the business was.<\/p>\n

According to the witness, Livigni had two types of employees who operated around the park: \u201cworkers\u201d and \u201cmanagers.\u201d<\/p>\n

A worker made the hand-to-hand exchange of drugs to client, Barry said \u2014 adding that they worked anywhere from six to seven days a week, raking in up to $500 a day.<\/p>\n

A vagrant begs for money in the green space last year. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

Livigni also had managers to oversee the worker during their shifts, although they were paid significantly less \u2014 about $800 a week \u2014 because they were \u201csafe\u201d from the dirty hands of the deals, according to Barry.<\/p>\n

The drug kingpin had their schedule divided in three shifts to cover the morning, evening and overnight \u2014 which would be staffed with one worker and two managers per shift, Barry said.<\/p>\n

Jurors were shown evidence bags containing several drugs seized when Barry was arrested while working for Livigni in 2025 \u2014 including color-coded baggies to identify each drug.<\/p>\n

Drugs have been a regular park scourge. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n

Several packages that were shown were yellow, which Barry said contained crack-cocaine. He estimated that they sold around five to six packs per shift, which tallied up to $1,800 in sales each week alone.<\/p>\n

But the money maker \u2014 heroine and fentanyl, packed in light-blue envelopes \u2014 racked in up to $7,000 in sales per week, Barry said.<\/p>\n

Barry, who pleaded out in a state drug case related to the trial, is one of several witnesses expected to testify against Livigni, who was indicted with 18 others in October 2025.<\/p>\n

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The drugs dealt by the crew, which also called itself WSP Enterprise, led to two deaths that year \u2014 including 18-year-old Bailey Shaw of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Livigni is also charged in the death of a 43-year-old homeless person who\u2019d been living in the park.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have said that the organized criminal group was estimated to have distributed millions of doses of opioids, including fentanyl and heroin, as well as crack cocaine, tied to at least 65 overdoses in the popular park since 2020.<\/p>\n

Livigni faces up to life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.<\/p>\n

The trial will resume Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drug kingpin raked in nearly $40,000 a month running a Wall Street-worthy operation near Washington Square Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[24453,24783,7317,6277,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,58,15081],"class_list":["post-347854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-cocaine","tag-drug-dealers","tag-drugs","tag-fentanyl","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-us-news","tag-washington-square-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347854","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=347854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}