LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced today that GEORGE
DEJESUS, a/k/a “Georgito,” the leader of a violent heroin
organization in the Bronx, was sentenced to 30 years’
imprisonment on narcotics and weapons charges. On June 21, 2006,
DEJESUS was found guilty by a Manhattan federal jury of charges
stemming from the daily sale of thousands of dollars worth of
heroin, and the violence with which he operated his drug crew.
DEJESUS was sentenced by United States District Judge WILLIAM H.
PAULEY III. According to the evidence presented at trial:
Between October 2001 and December 2003, DEJESUS’s crew
sold hundreds of bags of heroin per day to users and to other
drug distributors. Profits from the heroin sales, at times,
exceeded $10,000 per day. DEJESUS’s drug business, which
operated on Boynton Avenue between Bruckner Boulevard and Watson
Avenue in the Bronx, sold heroin from approximately 7:00 a.m.
until midnight, by using managers and workers who operated during
different shifts throughout the day. The heroin sold by
DEJESUS’s organization, some of which was purchased by undercover
officers of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), was
stamped with brand names such as “Diesel,” “Blue Devil,”
“Budweiser,” and “Warlock.” DEJESUS was responsible for all dayto-
day operations of the business, including supplying the heroin
to his managers for retail sale, collecting the drug proceeds at
the end of each day, performing counter-surveillance to detect
police activity, and switching the brand name stamps on the
heroin bags to avoid police detection.
DEJESUS ruled his organization through intimidation and
violence. For example, in May 2002, DEJESUS directed a trusted
lieutenant of his to retrieve a .38-caliber chrome revolver for
use in connection with a drug dispute between his worker and an
undercover New York City Police officer.
In imposing the sentence, Judge PAULEY stated: “The
nature and circumstances of the crimes for which Mr. DeJesus
stands convicted here present a grave danger to the community,
and the introduction of illegal narcotics and firearms in the
community poses incalculable risks and damage to people on the
streets.”
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern
District of New York initiated an investigation into the drug
trafficking activities of DEJESUS and his associates in October
2002, after officers of the NYPD reported that they had been
threatened by DEJESUS that he could find their homes, and cause
them harm. DEJESUS’s prosecution was the culmination of a nearly
four year-long NYPD investigation into this high-traffic heroin
distribution area in the Bronx, and resulted in the dismantling
of this violent and profitable heroin organization.
Mr. GARCIA praised the cooperative investigative
efforts of the Major Case Narcotics Unit of the Bronx Narcotics
Division of the NYPD and the New York Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Strike Force, which consists of agents, detectives
and troopers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security’s
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Internal
Revenue Service, United States Marshals Service, United States
Secret Service, NYPD, and New York State Police.
Assistant United States Attorneys MARC P. BERGER and
DANIEL L. STEIN are in charge of the prosecution.
07-234 ###
United States Attorney
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
September 28, 2007 YUSILL SCRIBNER,
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
(212) 637-2600
