A former NYPD detective is among four people arrested after investigators say they uncovered a drug pipeline running from Washington Heights to Staten Island, with a raid on his Great Kills home turning up 13 unlicensed firearms, including AR-style rifles. Shanta Sawyer, described by authorities as the ringleader, his wife Sophia Abinacer, Michael Giordano and former detective Philip Pietrunti were all arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court this past Friday.
According to a report from silive.com, authorities allege the Upper Manhattan-based operation supplied dozens of Staten Islanders with fentanyl, crack cocaine and counterfeit pills. The NYPD and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office ran a wiretap investigation into the ring from May through October, intercepting communications in which the defendants allegedly used coded language to describe drugs and prices.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the six-month investigation found that the defendants flooded Upper Manhattan and Staten Island with dangerous drugs. Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said the operation shut down what she described as a dangerous drug pipeline spanning Upper Manhattan to Staten Island, and that investigators removed narcotics, production equipment and more than a dozen illegal firearms. Brennan also thanked Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon and his staff for their partnership in the case, according to amNewYork.
Predawn Raids Across Two Boroughs
NYPD officers with the Narcotics Bureau took the four defendants into custody at their homes early Thursday, per the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's account relayed by amNewYork. A joint task force raided Sawyer and Abinacer's Washington Heights apartment around 6 a.m., where officers recovered large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine and heroin from a backpack and a bedroom safe, along with a pill-pressing machine found in the bedroom. Two young children were reportedly present in the apartment during the search.
Police separately searched Giordano's Great Kills home, where they found a small lockbox containing crack cocaine and roughly 40 glassine envelopes of heroin, along with scales. The most significant haul, however, came from Pietrunti's Great Kills residence, where officers found 13 unlicensed firearms, including AR-style rifles — 12 stored inside a bedroom safe and one on a nearby shelf, with ammunition for each weapon also recovered.
Alleged Dealings Between the Ex-Detective and Sawyer
Prosecutors allege Sawyer offered to sell Pietrunti cocaine for resale back in mid-May, with the two allegedly referring to cocaine as a “ball” during that exchange. Pietrunti reportedly said at the time that he was selling to someone at work. Months later, according to prosecutors, the two discussed meeting at a Wendy's restaurant in late August for a cocaine and Xanax sale, and NYPD investigators watched the pair meet at that location.
The alleged network reportedly extended beyond Pietrunti. Sawyer is accused of sending his wife to carry out an illicit drug sale in early October, and the following week, he and Giordano allegedly planned to use Giordano's house as a meeting point for further transactions. The silive.com report adds that authorities allege Sawyer traveled from Washington Heights to Staten Island multiple days a week to deliver narcotics, with his wife assisting in sales.
Bail Set, Pleas Entered
At arraignment, Sawyer was ordered held on $250,000 bond, while Pietrunti had bail set at $100,000. Abinacer and Giordano were released on their own recognizance. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The case lands amid broader concern about Staten Island's overdose crisis. A Staten Island District Attorney's Office fentanyl task force report found that 53% of fatal overdoses on the borough were cocaine-related, with cocaine overdose numbers rising nearly 20% between 2021 and 2022, and that most of those cocaine deaths involved drug mixtures. The same report found that in 90% of drug arrests on Staten Island, the person arrested was a Staten Island resident — a detail that stands in contrast to this case, in which the alleged supply chain is accused of running in from Washington Heights.
This is not the only recent drug case tied to the borough. In a separate case detailed by amNewYork, seven men were arrested and indicted on 39 counts after authorities alleged they sold 557 grams of cocaine, 360 grams of heroin and 176 grams of fentanyl over nine months, allegedly ferrying drugs from Brooklyn to a home in Eltingville for sale. The Special Narcotics Prosecutor's office has also announced other recent busts, including an October operation that disrupted an alleged fentanyl packaging operation in a Bronx apartment and recovered roughly two kilograms of fentanyl mixtures, and an April case in which authorities seized about 42.5 kilograms of fentanyl and two loaded guns from unrelated Bronx and Manhattan packaging operations.
