Inwood Crack Peddlers Sentenced to Long Stretches Behind Bars

By JEREMY MYRTHIL

For two years, street gang leader Jose Luperon and overseeing manager Xavier Vargas were responsible for the sale of over 100 orders of crack cocaine along the stretch of Vermilyea Avenue between West 204th and West 207th Street.

Then the police following tips and leads decided to send detectives undercover.

As a result of the undercover work, drug kingpins Luperon and Vargas were sentenced on Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court to prison after being found guilty of major trafficking and criminal sales of a controlled substance.

Luperon faced two separate prison terms, totaling 20 years and five years supervision after serving. Vargas also received two prison sentences, totaling 16-and-a-half years.

Operatingc24 hours a day, Luperon and Vargas’ criminal enterprise occupied the building lobbies and gated entrances of residential buildings along Vermilyea Avenue, prosecutors said. They began peddling dope in August 2015 until the enterprise was shut down after Christmas, 2016.

“As charged in the indictment, this highly structured trafficking ring operated out of just a few buildings on one Inwood block,” said Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance in a statement regarding the arrests of not only Luperon and Vargas, but of 30 other gang members.

Vance labeled Luperon the ringleader after reviewing his role in the drug operation under the “drug kingpin” statute. Jose’s brother, Omar Luperon, was also listed by the DA as a ringleader.

Vargas managed the day-to-day trafficking of the drugs, and was the only manager listed by court records as having been arrested. Before his sentencing, Vargas was being held on bail.

All 32 defendants involved in the crack cocaine ring, were accused of at least one count of second-degree conspiracy. The 30 otherr defendants await sentencing.

“Now, thanks to the NYPD and my Office’s prosecutors,” said Vance, “these residents will no longer have to sidestep drug deals in order to reach their homes, schools and places of worship.”