Ex-NYPD detective among 4 busted in massive NYC drug ring

An Ex-NYPD detective was among four people busted in a conspiracy to funnel hoards of drugs from Manhattan to Staten Island, according to authorities.Alleged ringleader Shanta Sawyer, 44, is charged with conspiring with his wife, Sophia Abinacer, 37, Michael Giordano, 35, and retired detective Philip Pietrunti, 60, to supply illegal narcotics to dozens of Staten Island customers, the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday.The crew was arrested last Thursday after a six-month wiretap investigation and a raid of Sawyer and Abinacer’s Washington Heights residence and the Great Kills and Eltingville homes of Giordano and Pietrunti, investigators said.Cops uncovered large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and heroin from a backpack and safe, and a pill-pressing machine while searching the couple’s Washington Heights abode, where two young children were also present.

Inside Giordano’s house, cops also discovered a small lockbox of crack cocaine, 40 envelopes with heroin, cocaine, two scales, and drug packaging materials.Officers then recovered at least 13 unlicensed firearms inside the home of Pietrunti, a retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit member.Investigators unveiled the drug conspiracy through intercepted phone conversations, including one on May 18, in which Sawyer spoke with Pietrunti about selling cocaine to him for resale.“You can’t wait until you get off from work?” Pietrunti allegedly asked.

“No, because I’m selling to someone at work,” Sawyer said.In late August, the pair also discussed meeting at a Wendy’s restaurant to conduct a sale of cocaine and “Xannies,” or Xanax pills.Sawyer allegedly informed the ex-cop that the pills were counterfeits.

On Oct.2, investigators intercepted a call in which Sawyer planned to send his wife, Abinacer, to meet a buyer for a narcotics transaction of “dog food,” “G’s,” “Hard,” “Candy,” and “Pebbles” — known to refer to heroin, crack cocaine, a...