Feds: Fentanyl dealer from Huntington Station gets 7 1/2 years in prison

A Huntington Station man was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip Friday to 7 1/2 years in prison for trafficking and selling large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl, officials said.

U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bianco sentenced Jamal Brown, 26, to 90 months behind bars for distributing and possessing with intent to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl between July 2017 and February 2018, prosecutors said. Brown pleaded guilty in May 2018.

Brown also solicited his 17-year-old brother to sell fentanyl and cocaine and store the proceeds, prosecutors said.

“Brown preyed on vulnerable addicts to enrich himself, exposing them to significant risk of overdose with fentanyl, a drug that is a leading factor in the opioid crisis plaguing Long Island and the United States,” said Richard Donoghue, U.S.attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.  

Nancy Bartling, Brown’s Mineola-based attorney, said she was pleased with the sentence, which will allow her client to be housed at a lower-security prison and to receive treatment for his drug addiction.

“He was selling drugs to feed his addiction,” Bartling said.

From July 2017 through February, Brown possessed and sold more than 40 grams of fentanyl, along with large quantities of cocaine, which he stored at locations in Bay Shore and Huntington Station, prosecutors said.

Brown also relied on a drug addict, who had told him of his plans to enter a rehabilitation facility, to transport the narcotics and pick up the profits, according to wiretaps revealed by prosecutors. 

On Feb. 27 federal officials raided Brown’s drug locations and seized more than 76 grams of fentanyl, 150 grams of cocaine, a .32-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun and ammunition.  Brown’s newborn was inside the Huntington Station location, where approximately 10 grams of fentanyl were recovered, at the time of the raid, officials said.

“Drug trafficking is inevitably linked to corruption, crime and addiction,” Ray Donovan, special agent-in-charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in statement. “Jamal Brown turned his younger brother into a drug dealer, exposed his newborn child to fentanyl and encouraged drug use by addicts seeking treatment.” 

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.