Glittering jewelry stolen from ritzy Hamptons mansions ended up in the hands of Bushwick dope dealers — thanks to a prolific East End burglar, officials said at his arraignment.
Heroin addict Justin Bennett pleaded not guilty Thursday to raiding 30 estates in some of the priciest ZIP codes in the nation during a wild thieving spree that netted him roughly $200,000 in jewels and cash.
Bennett — who faces up to 15 years behind bars for each robbery — became such an elusive menace that East End cops collaborated with the NYPD to finally take him down late last month.
One of Bennett’s victims included a woman with breast cancer who was collecting money for research into the disease, cops said.
City detectives recovered some of the stolen valuables at seedy locations in Queens and Brooklyn and are attempting to reunite them with their Hamptons owners.
Bennett, 35, used his girlfriend’s Toyota sedan to pull off the jobs in East Hampton, Southampton and Sag Harbor and told cops that he spent hours casing neighborhoods looking for easy marks.
The desperate drug addict managed to creep into dozens of homes ranging from multimillion-dollar Sagaponack and Bridgehampton estates to day laborer sharehouses in Springs, cops said.
Bennett entered through open windows and doors or managed to find hidden keys, officials said.
Police units were able to finally nab him after witnesses who caught him loitering in their neighborhood gave descriptions of his car and appearance.
Bennett drove his Hamptons loot all the way from the East End and sold it off to drug dealers and fences in New York City, cops said.