Three indicted for selling drugs after deadly ODs spark probe of Staten Island hotel
A string of overdoses at a seedy Staten Island hotel led to the arrest of three drug dealers operating out of rooms at the inn, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Police and the Staten Island District Attorney’s office started looking into the Richmond Hotel on Central Ave. near Bay St. in St. George after cops responded to six ODs, three of them fatal, between April and August.
The D.A.’s office started investigating overdoses like they would homicides as part of a 2016 Overdose Response Initiative.
During the probe, investigators learned cousins James Williams, 42, and Andre Williams, 36, along with a third suspect, Willie Lewis, 38, were dealing cocaine out of their rooms at the hotel, which sets aside rooms for homeless people.
Police set up several undercover purchases, buying cocaine from the men, according to prosecutors.
Staten Island D.A. Michael McMahon announced Tuesday all three men were indicted on multiple drug-dealing charges. Cops also found cocaine and meth when they raided James Williams’ hotel room, they said.
The drugs they sold weren’t directly linked to the overdoses, the officials said, but the probe of the deaths uncovered the operation.
“Our long-term overdose response investigation into the overdoses that were reported inside this hotel led my office and the NYPD to uncover a drug dealing ring operating from within,” McMahon said. “These defendants allegedly used their hotel rooms as de facto drug houses, but they were not able to evade law enforcement for long.”
Lewis and James Williams where ordered released on no bail after arraignments in Staten Island Supreme Court.
A fourth suspect, Rhasheen Pegus, 41, was indicted last month on weapon possession charges after he was caught outside the hotel on Nov. 3 with a 9-mm Luger semi-automatic pistol.
Andre Williams. who awaits sentencing in a 2019 gun case, is being held without bail. His lawyer, Louis Gelormino, said he “completely denies” the new charges.
Lewis’ lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said he’s awaiting for more information on the charges against his client.
“Once we receive the discovery, we will be able to mount a very, very credible defense to the allegations,” he said.
The hotel has seen its share of trouble, including in 2018, when a man was fatally shot in the head in one of its rooms over a drug dispute.
