Undercover operation arrests Brooklyn woman on gun and drug charges

A Brooklyn resident pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to gun trafficking and distribution of fentanyl and cocaine and faces up to 35 years in prison following a sting operation.

Ariana Charles, 28, pleaded guilty in federal court to firearms trafficking and conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine base. The plea was filed before U.S. District Judge William Kuntz.

Charles was indicted in January 2024 under the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal law specifically targeting gun trafficking, signed into law in June 2022. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for conspiracy to commit drugs and 15 years for firearms trafficking.

The bipartisan Safer Communities Act expands background checks, expands gun restrictions and establishes new criminal offenses related to gun trafficking and straw purchasing. It also funds and supports programs to improve mental health services, strengthen school safety, and combat gun violence in the community. Additionally, the law designates certain federal buildings and post offices.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, along with DEA ​​Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino and New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced the guilty plea.

“This office has made it its top priority to stop the illicit flow of guns and drugs into our community, and today's guilty plea is the result of those ongoing efforts,” the prosecutor said. American Peace. “Gang members, criminals, and violent individuals who use deadly weapons to inflict irreparable harm on our community do not come into possession of these instruments of death out of thin air; instead, they rely on traffickers like this defendant, who must be held accountable for their role in the violence resulting from the use of these weapons.

According to court documents, Charles sold 18 firearms to an undercover agent in residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including the New York City Housing Authority's Breukelen Houses, outside other apartment buildings and in the shopping center parking lots.

The undercover agent had told Charles and his co-conspirators that he was a drug dealer who needed guns to sell. Several guns sold by Charles were purchased in Virginia and Georgia and then transported to New York, including a firearm with a defaced serial number and several semi-automatic rifles.

Charles also sold crack cocaine and fentanyl to the undercover agent, some of which was disguised as oxycodone pills.

Four of Charles' accomplices are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy to smuggle guns into Brooklyn.

In this case, these four individuals pleaded guilty to conspiring to bring more than 50 illegal firearms into Brooklyn, including semi-automatic handguns, ghost guns, and firearms with serial numbers erased.

On March 28, 2024, David McCann and Calvin Tabron pleaded guilty, with McCann also pleading guilty to distribution of fentanyl. Co-defendants Raymond Minaya and Tajhai Jones previously pleaded guilty to gun trafficking charges earlier in March.

The defendants, David McCann, Calvin Tabron, Raymond Minaya, and Tajhai Jones, conducted these illegal gun sales in various public locations, including parks and parking lots, around the Breukelen Houses complex in Brooklyn. The guns were acquired in Virginia and transported to New York, with some linked to multiple shootings in Brooklyn.