If You Ask, Police Will Arrest Your Drug-Dealing Neighbor

Two weeks after a resident pleaded with police at a community council meeting to crack down on brazen drug activity near her home, cops busted her heroin-dealing neighbor handing out narcotics on the block.

Plain-clothed officers chased 22-year-old Nikita Pertsev into an apartment building last Wednesday after spotting him hand off a packet of heroin near the corner of East 19th Street and Avenue W, according to police. Pertsev allegedly tossed several envelopes of heroin down a garbage chute to hide them from police. He was later arrested when officers obtained a search warrant, according to authorities.

The arrest occurred two weeks after a 61st Precinct Community Council meeting, where a woman complained that her block had become infested with drug users and dealers who were scattering empty heroin packets in the street outside her home.

A community affairs officer at the 61st Precinct said the woman’s complaint helped inform officers about the location of drug activity.  Police had searched the building where Pertsev was arrested a month earlier, but came up empty handed, the officer said.

The precinct’s commanding officer Winson Faison called illegal drugs one of the station house’s “major headaches” in response to the woman’s complaint and vowed to look into the issue. He said his officers have been doing “search warrant after search warrant” this year and turning up an alarming number of guns in the process.

Southern Brooklyn’s heroin scourge has also gained traction among legislators, who support efforts to provide treatment for addicts while cracking down on dealers.

However, the arrest of Pertsev also demonstrates the difficulty law enforcement has keeping dealers behind bars. He was released a day after the arrest when he pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence for tossing heroin down the garbage chute, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney.

Officers were unable to retrieve the disposed heroin packets and Pertsev dodged the drug charge. He was sentenced to time served for the night he spent in jail, according to the DA.

Pertsev had a rap sheet prior to his latest arrest. Police say he was busted last year for criminal possession of a controlled substance. He was also caught in February trying to walk out of a Rite Aid on Avenue U with 16 cans of coffee tucked under his shirt, according to authorities.

The 61st Precinct Community Council meets every second Wednesday of each month at 7:30pm inside the YDE School located at 2533 Coney Island Avenue, near Gravesend Neck Road. For more information about the meetings, call community affairs 718-627-6847.