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The Park Avenue neighborhood off East 22nd Street was already a "hotspot" -- notorious for broad-daylight drug sales and loitering crowds -- when someone fired a gun after investigators broke up a large outdoor gathering last weekend, city Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
Detectives approaching the illegal club on a follow-up detail Friday spotted Donald Johnson, 21, of the Bronx exiting from under a halfway-pulled-down gate at the entrance to the business, the director said.
Seeing them, Johnson ducked back inside while holding a bulge under his clothing, he said.
The investigators ran in and grabbed Johnson, then swept the speakeasy, finding 188 Oxycodone pills on the counter top of a bar and a loaded, defaced 9mm Ruger – along with a bag of ammo – inside a broken speaker near the entrance, Speziale said.
The detectives arrested and searched a second man, Musa Coward, 30, of Paterson, who identified himself as the owner, the director said. They found him carrying 30 bundles of heroin, he said.
The drugs, gun and gambling devices were seized, along with $600 in illicit profits, Speziale said.
Detectives also arrested a third man, Atefah Johnson, 24, also of Paterson.
All three were charged with drug and weapons offenses. Coward also was charged with gambling-related crimes, Speziale said.
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