Deadly 'Blue Dope' Drug Ring Busted In Brooklyn: DA

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A neighborhood drug ring busted on Thursday sold a deadly mix of narcotics that led to two overdoses in the last year, including one that killed a woman in Staten Island, according to prosecutors.

Five members of the Sunset Park drug ring were arrested Thursday morning after a months-long sting operation led by the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor and the NYPD.

The suspects had been selling heroin, cocaine and the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl, including to an undercover NYPD officer. Their mix of the narcotics had caused one customer in Brooklyn, a relative of two of the dealers, to overdose and survive and another in Staten Island to die earlier this year.

“The dangerous, highly addictive, and oftentimes deadly, narcotics these defendants allegedly sold claimed lives, destroyed families and damaged communities throughout the city," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "I remain committed to fighting the opioid epidemic by working with our partners in law enforcement to target narcotic distribution rings and holding their leaders accountable for their decision to profit off the addictions and suffering of others.”

The undercover officer first started buying fentanyl, which gave the investigation its name "Operation Blue Dope," from Rachel Thompson and Brian Decavallas back in September. As the months went on, Thompson, Decavallas and three others started selling the officer heroin and cocaine, too.

By the end of the investigation, the officer had bought more than $45,000 worth of drugs from the suspects in 16 different transactions, prosecutors said.

Investigators also used wiretapping to find out that Thompson and Decavallas' were working directly with a drug supplier, who they called to pick up the drugs before almost immediately bringing them to the undercover officer at different spots throughout Sunset Park.

All five suspects — including Brian Decavallas' brother, Derek Decavallas, David Velez and Hector Frances — face a range of criminal sale of a controlled substance and conspiracy charges. They are all from Brooklyn.

The investigators tested the drugs sold to the officer in an NYPD laboratory, which found that the doses included fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, as well as mixtures of fentanyl, heroin and tramadol, another synthetic opioid.

An autopsy in the Staten Island fatal overdose found that her cause of death was acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl, cocaine and morphine. Fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl, a variant of fentanyl, is currently controlled by the federal government on an emergency basis, but remains unregulated under New York State law, prosecutors said.

“The lethal mix included a variation of fentanyl that, while capable of causing death, is not illegal under New York State law,” said Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan. “I thank our law enforcement partners for their work on this investigation, and urge the New York State legislature to pass a law making all deadly varieties of fentanyl illegal. Give us the tools we need to seize drugs that kill.”