Feds say drug-dealing gang members responsible for fatal opioid overdose

Sept. 18--Bloods gang members connected to a fatal opioid overdose in 2017 were arrested Tuesday and charged with running a heroin and fentanyl operation in Staten Island, authorities said.

Keith Wyche and Allen O'Neil sold heroin and fentanyl to at least two people who experienced overdoses shortly after purchasing the drugs, including a buyer who died in April 2017 and a user who stopped breathing and was revived by medics in October 2017.

A third man, Kyron Graham, was also arrested. Officials said Wyche, 34, and O'Neil, 27, regularly traveled to the Bronx to meet Graham to pick up drug supplies.

Authorities said Wyche and O'Neil sold heroin and fentanyl on Staten Island almost daily. Wyche and Graham, 27, shared a cell phone from which they sent messages to buyers in the morning notifying them who was selling that day, according to court records.

In some instances, even though someone wanted to purchase heroin, Wyche and O'Neil sold glassine envelopes filled with a mixture of heroin and fentanyl and, on occasion, only fentanyl.

"The defendants sold large amounts of dangerous narcotics, including pure fentanyl to unsuspecting buyers, for their own profit and without concern for the deadly consequences of their actions," said U.S. Richard Attorney Donoghue.

The arrests were the result of a series of long-term investigations by the NYPD'sDrug Overdose Task Force.

The defendants each face up to 20 years in jail. They were awaiting an arraignment in federal court.

The arrests came a day after city officials said overdose deaths in New York City in 2017 -- including residents and non-residents -- remained at epidemic levels, with 1,487 deaths compared to 1,425 in 2016, an increase of 62 deaths, or 2 %.

In 2016, there were 437 more deaths than the year before, a 51 percent increase over 2015.

On average, in 2017, there were nearly four drug-overdose deaths each day in NYC, or one overdose death every six hours.

"Abuse of heroin and the deadly additive fentanyl has cut a wide swath across our nation, affecting neighborhoods throughout New York City and people in every walk of life," said Police Commissioner James O'Neill. "NYPD detectives investigate every overdose to determine how the drugs were obtained, and it was those efforts that led to today's charges."

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