These dealers are finally getting benched.
The feds cracked down on lawless Washington Square Park, busting up a round-the-clock, open-air drug market that operated for half a decade in the heart of Greenwich Village, authorities said.
Nearly 20 dealers whose coordinated peddling of dangerous narcotics in and around the famed greenspace caused a rash of overdoses, two of them fatal, since 2020, were hit with charges in a federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan Thursday.
The accused “prolific” narcotics traffickers had racked up a combined 80 drug arrests over the past five years — but time and again, New York’s soft-on-crime laws allowed them back out to peddle fentanyl, heroin and crack-cocaine in the park, prosecutors said.
“New York families want us to use all available resources to get deadly fentanyl off our streets,” Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
“Together with the NYPD and the DEA, our office made a commitment to find and bring to justice those who target our children and our parks,” Clayton said. “My message should be clear: If you’re a drug trafficker operating in Washington Square, any of our other parks, or anywhere our kids walk or ride to school, we’re going to bring you to justice.”
The drugs dealt by the crew, which calls itself WSP Enterprise, led to two deaths in a six-month stretch just last year — including an 18-year-old from Colorado who had only just graduated high school and a 43-year-old homeless person who’d been living in the park, prosecutors said.
The operation was largely made up of “two primary, but closely interrelated groups of drug dealers,” some members of the Mac Ballers subset of the Bloods gang and the others working under John Livigni, a prolific dealer in the park for at least two decades, court papers state.
As part of the network, the two sects and other dealers working with them allegedly had an agreement not to sell in each other’s territory – and each had different colored bags to differentiate their deadly drug cocktails, the indictment states.
The organized criminal group was estimated to have distributed millions of doses of opioids, including fentanyl and heroin, as well as crack cocaine, tied to at least 65 overdoses in the popular park since 2020, Clayton said.
The 10-acre park, home to its iconic chess tables, three playgrounds, two dog runs, a fountain and the historic Washington Square Arch — as well as the West 4th Street subway station — has been a nexus of drug activity dating back well over 50 years.
But as the opioid crisis gripping the nation went into overdrive after the COVID pandemic, the park got out of control, with scattered hypodermic needles, brazen public drug consumption and drooling, strung-out addicts shooting up on benches all becoming common sights.
Earlier this year, Mayor Eric Adams announced a joint “community coalition” with the NYPD specifically targeting rampant drug use and vagrancy at Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village.
But a few months later, Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg was spotted by The Post happily painting a watercolor sketch in the park — part of his “art of healing” workshop series in July — as nodding off drug addicts meandered all around.
Residents decried the tone-deaf painting session as “a farce” and accused soft-on-crime Bragg of “gaslighting the entire neighborhood” pretending the park’s deep-seated drug problem on display right in front of his face didn’t exist.
Bragg is “committed to public safety in Washington Square Park,” his spokesperson said in a Thursday statement that referenced the district attorney’s painting event.
The DA “has focused on both criminal prosecutions and preventative efforts like community engagement,” at the greenspace, Bragg’s spokesperson said.
“Public safety cannot be solved by one agency alone – it takes all of our government and law enforcement partners including the NYPD, SDNY, and Special Narcotics Prosecutors,” the statement continued.
Police sources familiar with the investigation told The Post that the joint task force with the DEA came together about six months ago when agents came to the precinct seeking information about a case they were working on.
When cops pointed out they had made over 70 arrests, only to find the same people were getting back out on the streets to re-offend, the feds decided to put together a case that eventually grew into the indictment handed down Thursday.
“It was unbelievably frustrating for the cops and the community. The community kept complaining, we kept making arrests, but nothing changed at the end of the day — until now,” a police source said.
“Now it’s a brand new day and we have to maintain keeping the park free of drug dealers and let the community take advantage of this beautiful park,” the source said.
“These arrests are great because finally these scumbags are going to go away for a while … the cops are thrilled.”
Indeed, the indictment states that the NYPD’s 6th Precinct “arrested the defendants on over 80 occasions for state drug-related offenses and other crimes; some over a half a dozen times.
“Upon release from those arrests, the defendants returned to selling drugs in the Washington Square Park Area, despite the defendants’ pending state charges, or terms of state bail, probation, or parole.”
For instance, Livigni has been arrested more than 50 times between 1994 and 2023, including approximately 15 times in the Sixth Precinct for drug offenses, weapons charges, larceny and more, dating back to 1997, prosecutors and law enforcement sources said.
His most recent documented arrest in the Washington Square Park area was in March 2021 when he was busted on a grand larceny charge.
He was remanded into custody at his arraignment Thursday afternoon, along with at least eight of his alleged co-conspirators.
All 19 have been charged with conspiring to distribute narcotics resulting in death, punishable by 20 years to life in prison.
Fourteen of the defendants were busted overnight and into Thursday, while others were already in custody, including Maliek “Scarface” Lugg — one of the alleged Bloods gang members — who had been locked up at Rikers Island since March on state narcotics trafficking charges.
Lugg had been arrested 13 times, including seven busts related to criminal possession of a controlled substance dating back to 2001, authorities said.
On two occasions over the last five years, Lugg was arrested for allegedly brandishing a firearm while robbing a 15-year-old of his cell phone and demanding money from a 52-year-old victim.
The purple bags allegedly preferred by Lugg “included fentanyl and fentanyl analogues that were marketed as a particularly powerful type of dope” — the same concoction responsible for the Aspen Colo., teen’s death, court documents state.
The victim had just flown in to start a summer internship on Broadway in June 2024 and had asked someone to tee up cocaine for his arrival, prosecutors said.
“Regular mans was not there Got u some from another trusted guy was just a Iii more expensive If you end up not liking it I can get u from the regular mans asap but tbh [to be honest] this s–t gas,” the person ended up texting the teen after purchasing the drugs, court papers state.
The teen responded, “Perfect, I trust you.”
He was found dead of a drug overdose with a purple bag of drugs under his wrist the following day, the indictment states. His body was discovered in the Manhattan apartment where he’d been staying.
Less than six months later, the homeless victim’s body was found outside a Greenwich Village apartment building.
Cops discovered empty blue bags allegedly sold by the Livigni Team and purple baggies often used by the Bloods gang right next to the body, the indictment states.
The defendants named in the indictment alongside Lugg and Livigni include: Curtis Miller, Tommy Brown, Christian Cortez, Jared Covington, Nazzir Washington, Vito Haskins, Felix Cuevas, Manny Pina, Andre Bethea, Sean Thom, Bishara Strother, Robert Johnson, Henry Rodriguez, Peter Rodriguez, Daniel Negron, Brandi Felci and Blake Tannenbaum.
“These drug traffickers allegedly flooded Washington Square Park with dangerous narcotics that claimed two lives and harmed countless more people,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told The Post, hailing the NYPD, DEA and US Attorney’s Office for their efforts in the crackdown.
“They turned this iconic park into an open-air drug market, jeopardizing the safety and quality-of-life of families, students and the entire community.”
Arthur Schwartz, a Democratic District Leader in Greenwich Village, hailed the feds’ drug takedown, saying the dealing in Washington Square Park — and the “zombies” passing out coming out of it — is a top quality of life complaint for locals.
“I’m not a big fan of ICE arresting people over their immigration status, but arresting drug dealers in the park? That’s fine with me,” Schwartz told The Post.
“People pass out on the sidewalk on Sixth Avenue with needles all around them … there are constant complaints about drug dealing in the park and users leaving the park,” he said.
The Washington Square Park Conservancy, a nonprofit working with the NYC Parks Department to beautify and maintain the beloved public space, applauded the efforts of the task force for taking a big step toward eradicating some of the issues that have plagued the area for so long.
“The Washington Square Park Conservancy is thankful for the continued, collaborative efforts of all the agencies involved in the indictment process,” a rep for the conservancy said in a statement.
“The thousands of visitors who use the park each day deserve a vibrant greenspace that is safe.”
— Additional reporting by Ben Kochman, Steven Vago, Khristina Narizhnaya and Carl Campanile
