Metro

Bronx drug ring busted

A drug trafficking ring accused of terrorizing residents in the Bronx had 22 of its members arrested as a part of an undercover operation involving federal, state, and local law enforcement officers, cops say.

The Burnside Money Getters controlled much of the area between West Burnside Avenue to West Tremont Avenue in University Heights, selling a variety of drugs from marijuana to crack cocaine and ecstasy, according to police.

Police say undercover NYPD officers made several purchases of crack cocaine and other narcotics from drug dealers in the area, and were able to purchase significant street level quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine.

According to cops, the gang members possessed and discharged firearms during the course of the operation, a tactic used to bully local residents into silence over their drug trafficking activity.

“The Burnside Money Getters bullied community members and residents living in the vicinity of the gangs’ daily criminal activity,” DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Brian R. Crowell said of the gang.

“Drug trafficking was the main source of profit for this gang which employed violence, threats and the use of guns in the course of their lives of crime.”

Cops say the gang had over 20 members who were engaged in the sale of crack, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, and Oxycodone from 2007 through August 2013.

The defendants who were taken into custody today were presented in Manhattan federal court this afternoon.

The investigation is ongoing, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara .