Flanders resident Dennis Carrol illegally had two kilos of deadly fentanyl, Queens DA says

A Flanders man is facing up to 30 years in prison after drug enforcement agents stopped his car in Southeast Queens last month and found roughly two kilos of fentanyl in his trunk with a street value of $80,000, prosecutors said.

Dennis Carrol, 31, of Evergreen Road, was indicted by a Queens grand jury and arraigned Monday on charges of first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Queens County Supreme Court Judge Michael Aloise ordered Carrol held on $1 million bond.

“Overdose fatalities are up more than 50% in Queens this year and three of every four of those deaths are attributed to fentanyl and fentanyl derivatives," said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. "That is why this case is important and why my office will continue to work relentlessly to get this poison and its merchants off of our streets."

Natasja Bellinger, Carrol's West Islip-based defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.

A record number of Americans — more than 107,000 — died from overdoses in 2021, according to the DEA. 

DEA agents conducted a car stop in Hollis as Carrol was driving on Hillside Avenue on Nov. 28 at 3:30 p.m., prosecutors said. Agents searched the vehicle and found two plastic bags containing roughly two kilograms of fentanyl — enough to produce about 20,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, authorities said. 

Prosecutors said Carrol transported fentanyl, a cheap and deadly synthetic opioid responsible for most of the nation’s fatal overdoses in recent years, from Suffolk County to Queens.

A recent bulletin from the DEA indicated that in 2022, six out of 10 counterfeit pills contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is the most dangerous illicit drug on the street today and it presents the most serious threat to public health and safety in the United States," said Frank Tarentino, DEA special agent in charge of the New York Division. "In 2021, 107,622 Americans died from drug poisonings and over 66% are directly related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl."

The Queens District Attorney’s Office Major Narcotics Unit, working with the DEA, conducted the investigation utilizing court-authorized surveillance of Carrol's activities last month.

Nearly 800 Long Islanders died of opioid overdoses in 2021, Nassau and Suffolk officials said earlier this year. The deaths of more than 300 others, believed to be linked to opioids, have yet to be confirmed by the counties' respective medical examiners. 

In Queens, there have been 315 suspected fatal overdose cases thus far in 2022, an estimated 50% increase from the same time last year, prosecutors said. More than 76% of those deaths have been attributed to fentanyl.

Carrol is due back in court on Jan. 10.