Stray Gunshot Through Neighbor's Wall Leads NYPD to Drug Stash House

Nov. 26, 2024

Responding to a call about a stray gunshot at a Brooklyn apartment led NYPD officers to a drug dealer's stash house, filled with narcotics, guns and ammo

By John Annese

Source New York Daily News

A stray bullet that sliced through a wall in Brooklyn led NYPD officers to a stash of guns, drugs and cash, according to authorities.

NEW YORK — Talk about a bad shot. A stray bullet that punched through a neighbor’s wall led police and the feds to find a suspected Brooklyn drug dealer’s stash of guns, cocaine and cash, prosecutors allege.

Trouble started mounting for 30-year-old Kevin Tapia on Nov. 17, when one of his Brooklyn neighbors on the third floor of their Bay Ridge apartment building heard a loud noise around 10:30 p.m.

The 40-year-old neighbor then noticed a hole in the wall of his apartment hallway, which abuts Tapia’s unit, and a bullet on the floor, according to a criminal complaint.

He called 9-1-1, and police responded to the building, at Parrott Place near 92nd St., shortly afterward.

When the cops arrived, they saw someone, believed to be Tapia, tossing a package out of a window, according to the complaint.

The receipt had Tapia’s name on it, and the package held more than a kilo of cocaine, the feds allege.

Tapia then tried to escape down the fire escape of the same window, but fell onto a second-floor landing, where even more drugs fell out of his pocket, the feds allege.

Cops got a search warrant and found a treasure trove of drugs, guns and ammo, including a duffel bag containing an AK-47 rifle and six handguns, all loaded, along with hundreds of bullets; plus a safe with nearly 2 kilos of cocaine, $107,000 cash and three handgun magazines.

They also found another 3 kilos of pot, nine oxycodone pills, two cash-counting magazines and a body-armor vest in the apartment, the complaint alleges.

Police hit Tapia with a slew of state charges after his arrest, including criminal possession of a weapon, drug possession, reckless endangerment and machine gun possession.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn stepped in and hit him with federal drug and gun charges, as well.

A federal judge on Friday ordered him held without bail at MDC Brooklyn jail.

Tapia’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

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