Undercover sting in NYC park nabs 9 mushroom, cocaine pushers after Post report on brazen open-air drug market
Nine suspected drug dealers were busted for allegedly selling psychedelic mushrooms and crack cocaine to undercover NYPD cops in a brazen open-air market in Washington Square Park, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The suspects, who were nabbed at various points over the last six weeks, are accused of making more than a dozen sales to undercover cops during a months-long sting, according to the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office.
The slew of arrests comes after The Post first exposed in July last year that drug dealers had overtaken the popular West Village park to peddle the psilocybin shrooms and cocaine from makeshift stalls in broad daylight.
The majority of the alleged dealers arrested in recent weeks were tied to a “loosely affiliated street crew” that operated afternoon and evening shifts to sell the psychedelics, cocaine and crack cocaine in and around the park, prosecutors said.
The undercover probe kicked off in July 2023 — the same month of The Post’s expose — following community complaints about open drug activity in the park, according to prosecutors.
At the time, The Post witnessed dealers posing as art vendors as they hawked shrooms and weed under the table. Others, though, were more brazen — including one who shouted “I got shrooms, $40 for an eighth!” in front of shocked parkgoers.
“The aim of this investigation, which was initiated in response to community complaints about rampant drug dealing in Washington Square Park, is to ensure that this public recreational space can be enjoyed in the way it’s intended to be, and those who live in the surrounding area can feel comfortable in their neighborhood,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan said in a statement.
Jordan Gill, 26, of Brooklyn; Omalley Harris, 25, of Brooklyn; Donald Mack, 33, of Hempstead; Elisha Roger, 21, of Queens; Kimberly Scales, 44, of New York; Nazzir Washington, 20, of the Bronx; and Victor Whaley, 33, of the Bronx, were all indicted on varying counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third and fifth degrees.
They have all since been arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the two other alleged perps — Joshua Dunlap, 39, and James Cooney, 21, both from the Bronx — were each charged in a criminal complaint with criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree.
Psilocybin is a Schedule 1 narcotic in the Empire State and drug dealers can face felony charges for selling a gram of the drug, with up to 25 years in jail.
“Enhancing the quality of life in every New York City neighborhood is integral to the NYPD’s public safety mission, a fact understood by the regular visitors of Washington Square Park who refused to allow this beautiful open space to become an open-air drug market,” NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said.
“These arrests represent the reclaiming of a historic area that has long provided New Yorkers a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city,” he said. “I commend our NYPD investigators, and everyone involved at the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, for their dedication to this important case.”
Washington Square Park, which is a haven for tourists and NYU college kids, descended into a hotbed of drug use and chaos during the height of the COVID pandemic.
