NEW YORK — A retired New York Police Department detective is one of four people charged in a conspiracy that prosecutors say funnelled fentanyl, heroin, crack cocaine and oxycodone from Manhattan to dozens of customers on Staten Island, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office announced on Monday, November 9. Philip Pietrunti, 60, a retired member of the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit, is accused of conspiring with alleged ringleader Shanta Sawyer, 44, his wife Sophia Abinacer, 37, and Michael Giordano, 35, after a six-month wiretap investigation ended in raids and arrests last Thursday, November 5. All four are charged as allegations and are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Investigators raided Sawyer and Abinacer's home in Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan, and the homes of Giordano in Great Kills and Pietrunti in Eltingville, both on Staten Island. In the Washington Heights home, officers say they found large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine and heroin in backpacks and a safe, along with a pill-pressing machine — in a home where two young children were also present; the children are not named in the reports. At Giordano's house, officers found a small lockbox containing crack cocaine, 40 envelopes of heroin, cocaine, two scales and drug-packaging materials. At Pietrunti's home, they recovered at least 13 unlicensed firearms.

Source: New York Post reporting via USA News 24, Nov. 10, 2026

What the wiretaps heard

Prosecutors say the conspiracy was unravelled through intercepted phone calls. In one call on May 18, Sawyer allegedly spoke with Pietrunti about selling him cocaine for resale: “You can't wait until you get off from work?” Pietrunti allegedly asked, and Sawyer replied, “No, because I'm selling to someone at work.” In late August, the two allegedly discussed meeting at a Wendy's restaurant to carry out a sale of cocaine and “Xannies” — Xanax pills that Sawyer allegedly told the retired detective were counterfeits.

Source: New York Post reporting (wiretap summaries), via Daily8, Nov. 2026

On October 2, investigators intercepted a call in which Sawyer allegedly planned to send his wife, Abinacer, to meet a buyer for a transaction involving “dog food,” “G's,” “hard,” “candy” and “pebbles” — code words investigators say referred to heroin, crack cocaine and fentanyl. The following day, officers say they watched Abinacer arrive in Huguenot, on Staten Island's South Shore, meet the customer, and then drive back to her Manhattan home. In other calls, Sawyer and Giordano allegedly planned cocaine and fentanyl sales to another customer from Giordano's Great Kills house; police say they watched that customer pull up outside while Giordano came out and leaned into the vehicle, after which Sawyer left the house.

Source: New York Post reporting via USA News 24, Nov. 10, 2026

“Betraying his oath” — the prosecutors' case

Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon, whose office covers Staten Island, said in a statement: “The defendants involved in this takedown are alleged to have participated in a multi-borough criminal conspiracy that sought to flood our borough with dangerous narcotics, including large quantities of fentanyl, heroin and oxycodone. One of the defendants, Philip Pietrunti, a Staten Islander and retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit member, is accused of amassing a small army's worth of illegal firearms, jeopardizing our borough's public safety and betraying his oath to protect the community he once served.” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said: “This six-month investigation is a reminder of the NYPD's relentless efforts to get guns and drugs off our streets. These defendants flooded Upper Manhattan and Staten Island with dangerous drugs, but thanks to the tireless work of NYPD investigators, this trafficking network has been shut down for good.”

Source: Statements by Richmond County DA Michael McMahon and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Nov. 9, 2026

A retired detective with a record of arrests

Thursday's arrest was not Pietrunti's first encounter with the justice system from the other side. The New York Post reported that in 2015 he was accused of firing a gun at an excavator vehicle during a job dispute with a construction company he had formerly worked for — at the time, his third arrest of that year. That history is part of the reported background of the case; the charges in the present conspiracy are separate and remain allegations.

Source: New York Post, reported background, via Daily8, Nov. 2026

Why Staten Island

Staten Island, the borough where Giordano and Pietrunti live and where prosecutors say the drugs were sold, has been one of New York City's hardest-hit communities in the fentanyl era, and its district attorney's office has made fentanyl enforcement and overdose prevention a signature issue — announcing, for example, a 39-count fentanyl, heroin and cocaine indictment against seven defendants in August. Prosecutors say this network ran in the opposite direction from many city drug pipelines: supplied from a Washington Heights home in Manhattan, carried across the city by car, and sold to dozens of Staten Island customers in neighbourhoods including Huguenot, Great Kills and Eltingville.

What happens next

The four defendants were arraigned on Friday, November 6, in Manhattan Criminal Court. Sawyer's bail was set at $250,000 and Pietrunti was ordered held on $100,000 bail; Abinacer and Giordano were released without bail, police said. The case, brought by the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office with the Richmond County District Attorney, now proceeds in Manhattan, where the Washington Heights end of the alleged network was based. No trial date has been announced. Awaaz Punjab will report the next court developments as officials announce them.

Source: New York Post reporting via USA News 24, Nov. 10, 2026