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DEA agents, state police conduct drug raid at LIC luxury tower, two arrested

Center Boulevard

Aug. 29, 2017 by Nathaly Pesantez

DEA agents and New York State Police conducted a drug raid at a LIC luxury tower Tuesday morning, where two people were arrested and charged in connection to alleged drug distributing activities.

The raid was conducted at the high-rise on 45-45 Center Boulevard after a search warrant was executed at 6:00 am Tuesday morning, according to police sources. DEA agents and New York State Police raided an apartment on the fourth floor of the building.

Brian Parker, a 34-year-old man from Long Island City, and Victoria Koleski, a 29-year-old woman from Farmingdale, New Jersey, were arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute controlled substance analogues, along with distributing and possessing with intent. The controlled substances in question include U-47700, a strong opiod, A-PHP, a synthetic stimulant, and 3-MEO-PCP, a dissociative drug.

According to the Newark U.S. Attorney’s office, Parker, who has two prior convictions for federal narcotics-related crimes, allegedly manufactured and distributed controlled substances and other illegal chemicals through two internet based companies he controlled.

The Tuesday raid and arrest comes after a Wisconsin man died in 2016 after consuming substances sold by Parker. The overdose death prompted law enforcement to begin investigating one of Parker’s websites, which revealed that he and others, including Koleski, conspired to send and receive packages for his narcotics distribution business.

The Newark U.S. Attorney’s office said that from from June 30 to July 5, Koleski shipped approximately 218 parcels from a post office in Farmingdale, with some of them containing controlled substances that Parker sold online.

The two defendants are scheduled to appear in Newark federal court at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. Each charge in the complaint carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, according to the Newark U.S. Attorney’s office.

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62 Comments

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Other concerns about Center Blvd

Bugs, drugs, stolen screen names.Those buildings should get their own preparations,etc.,for our own coming hurricanes.Sorry,the horrendous images from Texas makes you wonder seriously if/ how our area is prepared. It’s not like we have room for motorboats in our apts.Anyway, people are helping as they can. Btw, blood donations always useful. Take care..

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Ed Parkin

4545 is not worth it. I lived there for 3 years. No security. Bug infested apartments. Friday and Saturday nights are wild. Escorts, hookers, drug peddlers.Many units were crammed with students who party all night and smoke pot.

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Anna

What kind of bugs? Seriously asking. We live on the 20th Fl and have never seen a bug anywhere but am actually curious/concerned.

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FortyFiveFortyFive

Howdy, neighbor. Not sure what bugs Ed was referring to, but we live on the 20th floor and have spotted cockroaches twice. Not sure how they got up so high, but after putting out some poison traps, we never saw them again.

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brooklynmc

I have been here 4 years. Have not seen a single bug with exception to a couple small kitchen cabinet food bugs. The only truth to his post is that they do allow young people to share apartments and put up walls. TFC has always done that. Sadly.

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Bill

We live in the building (have been since it opened 4 years ago) and have never experienced any one of these things.

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Anonymous

Ed Parkin. You are SERIOUSLY confused. Bet you can’t even cite one incident where you witnessed escorts, hookers, drug paddlers and reported it to management. Yet, you lived there for 3 years when you could have easily parked yourself elsewhere for less rent.

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Other concerns about Center Blvd

Always admired the beautiful buildings..then you see Houston flood stories& visualize rowboats& towels waving in windows. Just wondering if.the buildings have their own disaster plans..

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LIC Resy

It actually didn’t. The water didn’t reach 4540 or the where 4610 now stands. Though you’re right by the Avalon buildings the water flooded all the way to 5th street.

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MRLIC

To mIKE: Seedy sure, Past LIC used to have a seedy side. It wasn’t as bad as you make it out to be. I will take OLD LIC any day over the Manhattan type uppity people we have now in LIC.

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hm

so were they distributing? or was it an actual lab to make the drugs? Curious as many of the residents commenting about it on facebook have said it was a lab, which I haven’t seen any account of in any of the press. fake news?

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hm

Thanks! So a lab, but not the kind that could cause an explosion or harm the neighbors, like a method lab would. Good to have clarity… Too bad the fb mom’s are still perpetuating a rumor of more serious consequence with breaking bad quotes.

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Basta

Oh, yeah, totally. Like, no problem. It was a “safe” drug lab, so it’s totally fine, right?. Nothing to see here. They probably should have given the guy some sort of award, no? You know, for being good enough to operate a “safe” illegal narcotics facility. Can’t believe those jerk cops didn’t show this guy some appreciation.

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hm

Not the point, but way to take it to the extreme. You must be one of them. Do you spread fake news in your free time too?

mIKE

@ Alison lol seedy underbelly of Lic

u should have seen it years ago

this aint seedy girl not even close kid

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Anonymous

It wasn’t even seedy years ago. Give me a break.Quiet and industrial, yes. Seedy, nope.

Alison, you fragile flower, why did you move to New York City?

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What?!

Uhhh tell that to the drugged ladies (and fellas) of the night who used to pass out on my steps, pre-2008?

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Alison

TFC got sloppy? As per CBS, the guy arrested had two priors on drug related offenses!

4545 is more like a hotel. The lobby is very relaxed – anyone can walk right in since the gym and other amenities are shared by residents of other TFC properties. The front door is always open unlike the other building where the residents have to use an access card to enter/operate the elevator.

OAN, take a stroll by the basin road after 11pm on Fri or Sat to see the seedy underbelly of LIC.

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brooklynmc

Agreed. I live here and it is reminding me of 2 Gold Street in the Financial District, another TFC building where drugs were being sold and someone was shot and killed. Although TFC has been pretty good with us, the building has many flaws. Security does not exist. Anyone can walk right in. The “Club” people are supposed to use a different elevator bank but they don’t and nobody polices them. Not to mention one service elevator for an 850 unit 41 story building. Movers, maintenance, mops and vacuums, garbage, all use one elevator which means that they actually use our elevators. Frustrating when trying to go to work and the elevator keeps stopping to go 1 floor. The halls are not very well maintained, cleaned, painted. The elevators are filthy and smell like wet dog. We do have 2 of the best doormen in NYC though and some of the best views in NYC.

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Basta

Dude, you got hustled (don’t worry, though, you aren’t the first green guy from Connecticut to get duped in the big city). The “luxury” tag is now being used to the point of absurdity, and if you walk a few blocks and take a look at the way these new towers are built, things might finally start making sense to you.

And you think Mr. Parker showed TFC some paychecks to prove 40X rent, or you think he simply threw a bunch of cash at somebody? You think he is an isolated case?

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brooklynmc

I have spent my entire life within 40 minutes of NYC and half of my life in NYC. I have lived in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. You are just a really annoying and childish troll. Grow up. You are an embarrassment to adults.

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Anonymous

Wherever you have people you have problems. More people more problems. The growth of LIC and the overall popularity of the park and neighborhood restaurants makes the issues more visible each year. The park gets worse all the time with qol issues and the marijuana smokers, especially around blend, are pretty flagrant. I’ve pretty much given up on calling the park police as they simply don’t respond.

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ugh.

Not defending the police or their bandwidth to respond to calls, but Marijuana and the drugs described here are VASTLY different beasts. Marijuana is safer than alcohol for the body, and cannot be overdosed on. It has no place in this conversation whatsoever. Police have bigger fish to fry than a couple of potheads sitting on a park bench. I’ll bet you call them for off leash dogs too.

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Anonymous

Actually that’s exactly what the park police are for. To enforce quality of life conditions in the park such as pot and dogs. Otherwise why have them at all when the local police can handle everything else.

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brooklynmc

Marijuana! Seriously? That is not a problem, it is a blessing! If everyone would stop drinking and start puffing, the world would be a better place. Personally, I have no problem some some poor guy who has to go hide in a dark park like a criminal just because a bunch of old people think marijuana is dangerous, while they drink alcohol.

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Anonymous

You might not have an issue with pot smoke but I do. Nothing is more annoying that reading on the park bench and having a couple of guys sit down on the next bench and start flagrantly puffing away. The fact that people condone such behavior as harmless and petty is mind boggling and shows the social erosion that has taken place over the last decade.

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ugh.

Glad to see so many people disagree with you. But I am curious to understand what social erosion you speak of with regard to pot.

Frank

I don’t care if people smoke pot, but for one thing smoking is not allowed in parks, tobacco or pot. For another, it smell like crap – not as bad as some cigars, but still an odor I could do without.

brooklynmc

I agree about the social erosion, I just don’t agree that marijuana has anything to do with that. In my opinion, social erosion has more to do with aggressive, narcissistic, selfish, greed. Politicians and CEO’s. Those guys don’t smoke pot. I wish they did. Compared to alcohol, marijuana is child’s play.

brooklynmc

Frank… just for the record, alcohol is not allowed in the park either but for some reason that is not on your list and that is the most prevalent “drug” in the park. I don’t blame people if they don’t want to see or smell pot in the park, but where do you expect a pot smoker to go? Sometimes a dark park at night that has almost nobody in it seems like the best place. I have never smelled or seen pot in the park in broad daylight.

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Basta

You might be kidding, but I’m willing to wager that the number of people living on Center Blvd. that sustain themselves through illegal activities is surprisingly high.

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so...

I was entirely kidding, as I wouldn’t make such a f*cked up assumption or blanket statement about a large group of people I don’t know

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Listen

Legalize drugs! Treat it like alcohol and a mental health issue. Stop busting entrepreneurs and legalize the choice to ingest whatever you want for your body.

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brooklynmc

Legalizing drugs cuts down on overdoses but creates more addicts. Personally, I don’t want to live in a society where heroine or PCP is decriminalized. Marijuana and alcohol should be choice enough.

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Anonymous

How idiotic. You want dangerous drugs like fentanyl to be freely available to anyone who wants it? That is easily the most stupid comment I have ever read on this blog. And if you’ve been coming here long enough, you should know you are in the worst possible company.

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Anonymous

Leagalize the choice to ingest what you want but at the same time treat it as a mental health issue so the taxpayer is on the hook for the treatment when you ‘choice’ ruins your life….got it.

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Basta

Busting “entrepreneurs”? Seriously? If you knowing enter into an illegal enterprise, you aren’t an entrepreneur, you are a criminal.

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Barby

Talk about stereotyping.. always stating that Blacks n Hispanics are druggies, dealers etc. This is the second time in approx. 2 months that up scale (supposedly) citizens residing in lavish residential areas were arrested for distribution of deadly narcotics and paraphernalia. What now? Some of you fail to realize that those with money are the real DRUG DISTRIBUTORS n killers of the communities!!

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Sue smith

So if they live in high rise buildings they must be white? How do you know what ethnicity they are?

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Barby

Umm… you are the one stating they are white cuz I sure didn’t…not only white ppl live lavishly… there are many Black n Hispanics who live very well.

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Ummm Barby?

You didn’t state it but you implied it. By specifically saying that blacks and Hispanics are stereotyped as drug dealers and asking the question “what now” leads people to believe you are saying this person is neither black nor Hispanic.

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Anonymous

Maybe your just hearing what you want and doing your own stereotyping. Try using facts, stats, and common sense instead of looking at all through a racial filter.

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Barby

Excuse you..i am using common sense, stats n definitely facts..really? Why is it everytime someone states their opinion, someone always has to act like they are the ones being spoken about. W.E. tho… seems as tho some things hit nerves….believe me I get it..i can see it on both sides of the wall, however it just frustrates me when I hear certain neighborhoods getting profiled meanwhile when they arrest someone in a so called buji neighborhood is when they get a big bust….no offense!!?

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spell much?

Bougie – Derived from bourgeois – meaning middle/upper class, traditionally despised by communists.

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Logic Police

You specifically mentioned “Blacks n Hispanics” as dealers and druggies in your post, not poor people or certain neighborhoods, then compared that to “up scale (supposedly) citizens” and “those with money,” being the distributors, implying that “Blacks and Hispanics” are poor and aren’t upscale and thus aren’t dealing drugs (but may still be using?), thereby insinuating that the folks in the “buji” (btw, bourgeois is the French word there, so the abbreviation would probably be bourgie), building are white (or, at least, not black or Hispanic). You’re making comparisons between groups of people by race but then by class but then by wealth. Just maybe choose your wording better and make logical connections with your comparisons and it wouldn’t seem like you are implying that Brian Parker and Victoria Koleski are necessarily white.

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Anonymous

Oops my bad for not using auto-correction.. y’all make me laugh??.okaay you know what..i know what I meant to say (not that at all) if you read it that way so be it..it came across wrong…. again I’m not racist at all so no racism was meant n again if that is how it came across.. my deepest apologies..??

Anonymous

The only one who mentioned anything about race or ethnicity is you. In fact, I’ve never read this blog or any reputable news outlet specifically calling out someone’s race in their reporting, which is irrelevant.

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Anonymous

Ur making it seem as tho I’m being racist which I’m not..ooh cuz I mentioned Black n Hispanic? Well hey it is what it is.. In my hood that’s what happens n we are the ones the police target so if that offends you … that’s your own personal issue!! It’s not that big a deal. No es para tanto!! my feelings are my own n if you don’t like it or don’t agree, so be it, but I’m not going back n forth with you cuz u didn’t like what I had to say. Have a good day?

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