Queens DA: Freeport man among 11 charged in drug dealing ring

A Freeport man and 10 others face multiple charges of selling cocaine, crack and heroin in Nassau County and New York City, the Queens district attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Kevin Joseph, 50, was arraigned Dec. 15 along with three other defendants before Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis on a 68-count indictment. The four were charged with second- and third-degree conspiracy and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to prosecutors. When police conducted a late-night raid on Dec. 14 at Joseph's Freeport residence, they found multiple loaded weapons, ammunition and drugs, prosecutors said.

Other individuals charged and arraigned were Queens residents Kwansia Fraiser, 44, Troy Greene, 38, and Jason Hibbert, 35. Two defendants, whose names have not been released, are being sought, prosecutors said.

Queens residents Edwin Hernandez, 37, David Mustiga, 41 and Luis Parreno, 39; and Jesus Perez, 23, and Jose Torres, 46, both of the Bronx, were indicted on charges connected to the case earlier this year, officials said.

The investigation into the drug dealing operation, in business between December 2020 and this month, initially focused on Hibbert and Greene, prosecutors said.

It eventually expanded "to include several others who allegedly together and independently sold heroin, powder cocaine and crack cocaine in our neighborhoods," Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a news release. "One of the defendants set up a stash house and distribution hub in a two-story residential building just steps from a neighborhood playground. We will not stand for those who sell poison in our communities."

Greene and Hibbert set up a "stash house" in Queens, where people came to buy drugs, advising customers to use coded words or phrases such as "pieces of cake" to identify their drug of choice, prosecutors said in a statement.

Parreno made drug deliveries to buyers in Nassau County, parts of the Bronx and Queens, prosecutors said.

Using court-ordered eavesdropping warrants, prosecutors said they heard conversations identifying where drugs were bought and sold. In July and August, police carried out court-ordered search warrants and arrested suspects, according to prosecutors.

"These charges demonstrate that the investigative efforts of New York City law enforcement are precisely-focused and patient," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a news release. "As long as individuals are involved in illegal narcotics sales in our communities, the NYPD and our partners will relentlessly work to stop the threat to public safety."

Joseph’s lawyer, Danielle Muscatello of Garden City, declined to comment, as did Torres' Bronx-based attorney Andres Aranda. Attorneys for the other defendants could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday night.