4 THE COURIER SUN • MARCH 9, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz For pushing pills on the streets of Howard Beach and Ozone Park, the grandson of the late organized crime kingpin John Gotti will be spending the next eight years in the slammer, prosecutors announced. John J. Gotti, 23, was ordered on March 2 to serve eight years behind bars and five years’ probation after pleading guilty to counts of second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit a felony. He must also forfeit more than $250,000 in drug proceeds that law enforcement agents seized from him following his arrest on Aug. 4, 2016, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. John J. Gotti and eight others — including his girlfriend — were picked up by NYPD Narcotics Borough Queens South members in August as a result of a long-term investigation into illegal prescription drug sales in the areas of Howard Beach and Ozone Park. Gotti had previously been arrested on June 30, 2016, by the 106th Precinct after cops found him in possession of large quantities of Oxycodone, Xanax, methadone and other drugs during a routine traffic stop. During the long-term investigation, prosecutors police used court-authorized wiretaps and recording devices — one of which was installed on an Infiniti G35 sedan that Gotti used — which captured conversations Gotti had about his illegal business. In one instance, law enforcement sources said, Gotti stated that he sold more than 4,200 pills a month, earning more than $100,000 monthly; he once estimated that his Oxycodone trafficking business netted him $1.6 million a year. Along with surveillance, undercover detectives posed as customers to purchase more than $46,000 in Oxycodone pills from Gotti between April 22 and July 28, 2016, spending an average of between $21 and 30 per pill. Law enforcement agents raided Gotti’s home on 85th Street on Aug. 4 and recovered $52,000 in cash from his bedroom and 480 Oxycodone pills. In executing other court-authorized raids at the homes and businesses of his associates, police also recovered $200,000 in cash and a ledger which contained Gotti’s drug records. Cases are currently pending against Gotti’s alleged co-conspirators. Gotti’s grandfather, John Gotti, was the head of the Gambino crime family during the late 1980s. He operated his criminal empire out of the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park. The “Teflon Don,” as the elder Gotti was often called, was known for not shying away from the spotlight even as he was the focus of repeated investigations and prosecutions for criminal activity. After being acquitted at trial three times, John Gotti was finally convicted in 1992 on federal charges including murder, racketeering and conspiracy; he died in prison in 2003. Bellerose co. stole homes and dreams BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz It doesn’t get much lower than this. A Bellerose-based real estate company along with 11 individuals were charged on March 1 with allegedly carrying out a fraud scheme in which they targeted financially distressed homeowners and convinced them to hand over their properties for assistance that never came. Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that Kings Development Group, based at 246-15 Jericho Tpke., and others named in the 55-count indictment tricked homeowners into transferring their deeds to them with the promise of alleviating their financial burdens. Rather than freeing the victims of debt, he said, the suspects created “a financial nightmare for the homeowners and placed them in worse financial situations than when first contacted by the defendants.” Through an investigation conducted by the Queens District Attorney’s office, prosecutors learned that Kings Development and a Brooklyn-based affiliate, Yisroel Services Corporation, made cold calls to Queens property owners promising to assist them with their financial problems. Many victims of the scam, which was carried out between August 2012 and January of this year, were elderly residents. Law enforcement sources said the defendants convinced the homeowners to transfer ownership of their homes to a corporate entity. Even though the victims no longer had legal title to the home, authorities noted, they were still held responsible for paying their mortgages. Once the company had the deeds, they began charging the former owners (now tenants) rent, then later evicted them. The defendants then advised the state and city governments that they were the new owners of the properties and began collecting monthly subsidies for their new tenants, along with standard rent payments. Meanwhile, prosecutors noted, the former homeowners wound up in foreclosure, causing their credit ratings to be destroyed. Nine of the indicted defendants appeared in court on March 1: Netanel (a.k.a. Nathan) Barnes, 39, of Brooklyn; Welmi Y. (a.k.a. Jasmine) Fernandez-Cabrera, 32, of Manhattan; Michael Herskowitz, 37, of Brooklyn; Yariv Katz, 43, of New Rochelle, NY; Nadia Khedu (a.k.a. Nadia Sankar), 31, of Assaf Moshe (a.k.a. Joe Levi), 40, of Queens; Nissan Pinchasov, 30, of Brooklyn; and Yisroel Steinberg, 36, of Brooklyn. Two others remain at large: Domingo A. Fernandez, 63, of Manhattan; and Shandelle Solny, 25, of Brooklyn. They are variously charged with criminal possession of stolen property, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing, grand larceny, unlawful eviction, criminal facilitation, fraudulently obtaining a signature and scheme to defraud. They each face between four and 25 years behind bars if convicted on any or multiple charges. Photo via Google Maps The Jericho Turnpike office of Kings Development Group, which is charged in a massive deed fraud scheme. GRAND-DON GOES TO JAIL Gotti’s grandkid gets 8 years for drug deals Photo via Shutterstock/Inset via Twitter (@JJGotti27) John J. Gotti admitted in court on Feb. 8 that he dealt prescription painkillers illegally in Ozone Park and Howard Beach. Phone pullover leads to cigarette bust BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz Taking a call behind the wheel was a big mistake for an alleged cigarette smuggler busted in South Jamaica on the night of March 2 with a cache of untaxed smokes, police announced. Officers from the 113th Precinct observed Yunus Latis, 52, of 101st Avenue in Ozone Park using a cellphone while driving a 2008 green Toyota SUV at the intersection of Rockaway Boulevard and the Van Wyck Expressway northbound service road at around 8 p.m. on Thursday night. Law enforcement sources said the officers topped Latis’ car and checked his license, which they learned had been suspended. In questioning the suspect, police noted, Latis allegedly told them he had a large number of cigarettes in his vehicle which he was planning to sell. The officers would then find 520 packs — 10,000 cigarettes in all — inside the vehicle; each of the packs were found to have tax stamps from Virginia that were later determined to be counterfeit. Latis was booked on charges including criminal possession of a forged instrument, cigarette tax evasion, possession and sale of untaxed cigarettes, aggravated unlicensed operator and various moving and equipment violations. Photo via Twitter/@NYPD113Pct The pyramid of untaxed cigarettes that police seized from a driver in South Jamaica on March 2.
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