Leaders Of Drug Trafficking Organization That Distributed Fentanyl Linked To Eight Overdose Deaths In The Bronx Plead Guilty

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JESUS CABRERA, a/k/a “Gee,” and MICHAEL AMAYA, a/k/a “Miz,” pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and fentanyl analogue, and CABRERA also pled guilty to a related firearm count.  As part of the conspiracy, CABRERA and AMAYA distributed the fentanyl and fentanyl analogue that resulted in the death of Malik Rahman on August 25, 2021.  CABRERA and AMAYA pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “In broad daylight, Jesus Cabrera and his lieutenant, Michael Amaya, sold massive amounts of fentanyl in New York City, feeding addiction and causing untold tragedy.  Their drugs were in the fatal dose that killed Malik Rahman, and glassines stamped with the defendants’ logo ‘Supreme’ were found at the scene of multiple other overdoses in the Bronx.  This Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to hold accountable the dealers who peddle this poison, exploit addiction, and cause senseless death in our community.”

As alleged in the charging instruments, court filings, and statements in the public record:

CABRERA and AMAYA were the leaders of a drug trafficking organization (“DTO”) that operated principally from a block on 142^nd Street between Brook Avenue and St. Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx (the “Set”), where its members sold glassines of fentanyl in bulk to dealers who then re-distributed the DTO’s product on the Set and in other areas of the Bronx.  Members of the DTO also sold individual glassines to users who lined up on the Set on an almost daily basis.  CABRERA was the ultimate leader of the DTO, and AMAYA worked as the second in command, managing and overseeing the DTO’s various street-level dealers, baggers, and lookouts, including the other defendants charged in this case.  In the fall and winter of 2021 alone, the DTO distributed an estimated five to six kilograms of fentanyl per month.

The DTO frequently used a signature “stamp” on the glassines of fentanyl it sold.  For many months, the DTO stamped its glassines with a “Supreme” logo.  Starting in or around December 2021, the DTO began using an “Off White” logo and then switched to a “Thriller” logo.

Despite the DTO’s leadership’s awareness of the potential deadly impact of fentanyl, members of the DTO continued pushing the DTO’s product.  For example, as early as about January 2019, CABRERA sent AMAYA a link to a news article that described law enforcement’s crackdown on heroin dealers in the Bronx who were “pushing a deadly cut of heroin . . . using a new drug known as fentanyl,” which had led to a rash of overdose deaths.

On about August 25, 2021, one of CABRERA and AMAYA’s co-defendants, Alberto Concepcion, sold a quantity of loose “Supreme”-stamped glassines to an individual on the Set, who subsequently provided one of those glassines to Rahman.  Rahman died from an overdose shortly after ingesting the substances in the “Supreme”-stamped glassine, the residue of which later tested positive for, among other things, fentanyl and fentanyl analogue.  Both CABRERA and AMAYA were directly involved in overseeing Concepcion’s narcotics sales at that time.  Indeed, in the days leading up to Rahman’s fatal overdose, AMAYA and CABRERA exchanged text messages referencing certain quantities of narcotics that were going to Concepcion for resale on the Set.

Including Rahman’s fatal overdose, between around March 2021 and around December 2021, there were at least eight confirmed fatal overdoses in the Bronx at which the DTO’s “Supreme”-stamped glassines were found on the scene.

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JESUS CABRERA, 44, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 400 grams and more of fentanyl, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and to using, carrying, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, which must run consecutively to any other prison term imposed.

MICHAEL AMAYA, 42, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 400 grams and more of fentanyl, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The statutory minimum and maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York City Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Intelligence Analysts for their support and assistance in this matter.  He also thanked the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for its assistance in the case.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Narcotics Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew J. King, Kaylan E. Lasky, and David J. Robles are in charge of the prosecution.