Someone who was arrested for running a “around-the-clock” crack cocaine operation in Times Square in New York City is back on the streets after President Joe Biden commuted his federal prison term in January.
While he was in jail in 2021, Johnny “Ghost” Perez, 32, was given an eight-year term. On January 17, Biden commuted the sentences of 2,500 federal prisoners, according to the Justice Department.
In a raid, local and federal police caught Perez and some other drug sellers.
Federal authorities said that Perez was in charge of the drug operation’s second shift, which ran from at least December 2019 to August 2021.
At the time, U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said, “The defendants ran a real 24-hour open-air bazaar for the sale of crack cocaine in Times Square.” “We recall the bad old days of a much seedier Times Square that was unwelcoming, and we are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those days remain just a memory.”
The crack business that made $10,000 a week was described by police as a “24-hour open-air bazaar operating in around-the-clock shifts at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue,” according to the New York Post.
When the defendants were arrested, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a news release, “One shift’ arrived in the late morning and made sales through the late afternoon. Other defendants then arrived and made sales through the evening and night.”
“Although there was no set composition of defendants for the two shifts, defendant Aaron Starks was often present and overseeing the first shift, and defendant Johnny Perez was often present and overseeing the second shift,” a DOJ news statement said at Perez’s capture.
When they were first convicted, Perez got eight years in prison and Starks got six years. But Biden commuted their terms.
Fox News Digital has tried to get in touch with the Bureau of Prisons.
In the last few days of his presidency, Biden spared or changed the sentences of more than 3,000 people. Some were given to people in his family, like James Biden, Hunter Biden, and Valerie Biden-Owens.
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