Feds Destroy New York City Gun Dealer Gang Using Bipartisan Safe Communities Act

A Brooklyn street gang that operated at the Canarsie housing estate was incapacitated Wednesday when federal prosecutors charged four known members with running a major arms and drug dealing operation.

Investigators uncovered a deadly pipeline that carried illegal weapons from Virginia to the Big Apple, where the weapons — along with cocaine and fentanyl — were sold, often in broad daylight and in crowded public places, prosecutors said.

Some weapons, including a hard-to-trace “ghost weapon”, have been linked to the Brooklyn shooting, including from the Aug. 21, 2021, Bedford-Stuyvesant family gathering, in which eight people were injured.

Prosecutors say the indictment charges David McCann, Tajhai Jones, Raymond Minaya and Calvin Tabron with allegedly conspiring to traffic drugs and dozens of weapons.

The arrests, announced by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace and the NYPD, mark the first implementation of the federal bipartisan safe communities law.

The law allowed prosecutors to “streamline” the Brooklyn case by allowing arms conspiracy to be charged “as a separate federal crime,” Peace said.

“By filing charges against the defendants today, our office and our law enforcement partners have disrupted a network of firearms dealers that is putting our community at risk,” he said.

“We are demonstrating that we are ready to use all the tools at our disposal – new and old – to combat gun violence,” Peace said. “And reducing gun violence will always be one of this office’s top priorities.”

During the year-long investigation, authorities managed to secretly procure more than 50 illegal weapons and more than a kilogram of fentanyl, as well as other drugs, prosecutors said.

“Many of these transactions took place during the summer at Canarsie Pier, which we know is a popular recreational area where many Brooklyn families have picnics and play with their children on the playground,” Peace said at a press conference.

The joint Brooklyn operation began in January 2022 at the troubled Breukelen Houses public housing complex in Canarsie following repeated complaints from NYPD 69th Precinct police officers of violence and drug dealing.

“We can’t do anything in the city without our communities and across the city,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news conference.

“We hear more and more that people want the police to do their job so they can stop crime and stop violence,” Sewall said. “And so we sincerely appreciate the members of the community who provided us with this information, and we encouraged more people to work in collaboration with the department because the police are a community.”

The bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in June, calls for increased background checks on the youngest gun buyers, allocates millions for mental health services, and gives states an incentive to pass red flag laws.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Health and Human Services awarded $245 million to government agencies for mental health and health care services.

The Brooklyn operation combined the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the NYPD.