Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Dennis Carrol was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted by a jury in March of criminal possession of a controlled substance. Approximately 2 kilograms of fentanyl, with an estimated street value of $80,000, were recovered in the trunk of Carrol’s car in November 2022 during a stop in Hollis by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The defendant was on his way from Suffolk to sell the drugs in Queens.

District Attorney Katz said: “Those who peddle poison into Queens are on notice: my office will prosecute drug traffickers and work with our law enforcement partners to seize lethal drugs to ensure public safety. This defendant was convicted of possessing 2 kilograms of deadly fentanyl that thankfully never made into our neighborhoods. I thank our partners at the Drug Enforcement Administration for their assistance in this investigation.”

Carrol, 34, of Evergreen Road in Flanders, Long Island, was convicted on March 24 of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree following a four-week jury trial.

Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng, who presided at trial, sentenced the defendant yesterday to 18 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.

According to the charges and trial testimony, the District Attorney’s Major Narcotics Unit of the Major Economic Crimes Bureau, in conjunction with the DEA’s New York Division, launched an investigation in November 2022 into the defendant’s involvement in narcotics trafficking.

Based on the intelligence gathered, on November 28, 2022, at approximately 3:30 p.m., DEA agents conducted a car stop of Carrol’s vehicle as he drove through the intersection of Hillside Avenue at 188^th Street. The subsequent search revealed two plastic bags in the trunk of the car containing roughly 2 kilograms of fentanyl, with an approximate street value of $80,000.

According to the DEA, 1 kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.

Assistant District Attorney Kieran Linehan, Section Chief in the Major Narcotics Unit in the District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Mary Lowenburg, Bureau Chief, Assistant District Attorney Catherine Kane, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Scharf, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of Investigations Gerard Brave.