A Brooklyn woman was charged with a five-count indictment in federal court for conspiring to illegally traffic 18 firearms to Brooklyn.
Ariana Charles is charged with gun trafficking, as well as three narcotics related charges, including distribution of fentanyl and cocaine base, and a conspiracy to do the same. If convicted of the charges, Charles faces up to 20 years in prison.
“As alleged, the defendant brazenly trafficked firearms and deadly drugs to the streets of Brooklyn, feeding the cycle of gun violence and drug abuse endangering our community,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “This Office will not relent in its efforts to keep the community safe by investigating and prosecuting those who seek to profit from the proliferation of guns and fentanyl which have destroyed so many lives.”
According to the indictment and court documents, Charles personally conducted firearms sales to an undercover law enforcement officer in and around New York City Housing Authority’s Breukelen Houses in Canarsie.
Transactions also took place outside apartment buildings and in shopping center parking lots in broad daylight. Several guns were purchased in Virginia and Georgia and transported to New York.
In addition to firearm sales, including semiautomatic rifles, Charles sold drugs, including crack cocaine and fentanyl. The fentanyl allegedly sold by the defendant was disguised as Oxycodone pills.
