Devone Browning and Austin Dunning, both of Mariners Harbor, headed the laundry list of busts by undercover agents announced earlier today as part of Operation Good Neighbor IV, a joint NYPD-Staten Island district attorney's office investigation into street-level drug trafficking that has resulted in criminal charges against 60 individuals since it began in September of last year, District Attorney Daniel Donovan said.
Browning, 26, of Harbor Road, was hit with 62 counts of felony drug sales, possession and weapons charges stemming from incidents that occurred between October 15 and June 2.
"There was no hierarchy here," District Attorney Daniel Donovan said in describing the group nabbed in the undercover sting. "This was a loosely fit organization of people dealing drugs in Mariners Harbor."Dunning, 24, of Lockman Avenue, faces 14 counts of drug and weapons possession and trafficking for deals with undercover detectives from May 10 to May 19.
In addition to felony drug charges, Browning and Dunning are charged with selling three guns to undercover agents working out of the Staten Island Narcotics Squad: A 9mm AA Arms AP9 semi-automatic assault weapon; a 9mm Luger Ruger P89DC semi-automatic pistol, and a sawed-off Mossberg 835 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.
Browning could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the weapons charges, and up to 15 years on the felony drug counts.
Dunning could spend a maximum 15 years behind bars if convicted on the weapons charges alone.
Most of the others picked up when police executed eight search warrants Tuesday could land in jail for up to nine years if convicted on felony Class B criminal drug sale and possession charges, Donovan said.
The district attorney noted that as of this afternoon, 41 individuals had been arrested, with 23 facing felony indictments.
“There was no hierarchy here,” Donovan said in describing the group nabbed in the undercover sting. “This was a loosely fit organization of people dealing drugs in Mariners Harbor.”
Narcotics agents took to the streets of Mariners Harbor last September in response to a slew of complaints from residents fed up with drug dealing and violence in the North Shore neighborhood.
This fourth edition, following on operations in Stapleton and West Brighton, used undercover agents and electronic surveillance to make a total of 270 narcotics purchases during a 10-month period.
“And we spent $50,000 in doing so,” said Deputy Inspector Robert Hanson of the Staten Island Narcotics Squad.
Hanson said undercover agents randomly targeted “midlevel to low-level-type street dealers” and seized 1,293 zips and 56 “loose” zips of marijuana, 705 zips of crack, 18 twists of crack, 10 loose pieces of crack, 22 bags of powder cocaine, and between 500 and 1,000 pills of Oxycodone.
“The undercovers were the backbone of this operation,” said Hanson, who could not immediately put a street value on the drugs seized. “Their work ethic was second to none.”
Hanson added that the guns were purchased after undercover cops “came across two individuals” who allegedly offered to sell the weapons during a street drug deal.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly praised the detectives and the district attorney’s office for the lengthy operation.
“Sixty arrests is a good dent by anyone’s math,” Kelly said in a statement.
Donovan said police aren’t finished.
“We do expect more arrests in the near future,” the district attorney said.
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