Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Amanda Chen and Sheng Lin were charged with 17 counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal use of drug paraphernalia after a search of their Flushing penthouse apartment uncovered $654,000 worth of drugs and $37,502 in cash.

District Attorney Katz said: “We will not allow drug dealers to set up pill mills and peddle poison that could do untold harm in our communities. We will hold the defendants accountable for the allegations against them. Every time we take a significant amount of drugs off the street, we are saving lives.”

Chen, 39, and Lin, 42, of Northern Boulevard in Flushing, were arraigned last night on a complaint charging them with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree, two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree, two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, five counts of criminal possession of a controlled substances in the fifth degree, six counts of criminal possession in the seventh degree and criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree.

If convicted, Chen faces up to 20 years in prison and Lin up to 24 years. Judge Jessica Earle-Gargan ordered the defendants to return to court tomorrow.

According to the charges:

• On November 28, at approximately 10:00 a.m., investigators stopped the two defendants when they were exiting the parking garage at their residence on Northern Boulevard near 146^th Street in Flushing.
• A court-authorized search warrant executed on their home resulted in the discovery of a stash of drugs throughout the apartment – including amphetamines, MDMA, oxycodone and psilocybin mushrooms.
• In a bedroom closet, detectives found thousands of orange amphetamine pills in a bag weighing more than 15 kilograms, along with five smaller plastic zip bags packed with the same pills weighing about 400 grams each. Additionally, there was a quantity of variously colored oxycodone pills: pink weighing approximately 922 grams, white weighing 2.17 kilograms and blue weighing 78 grams. Approximately 1.95 kilograms of MDMA pills were found in the same location.
• Inside a laundry machine closet, investigators discovered a box addressed to Chen that contained three plastic bags of psilocybin mushrooms weighing 77 grams, 215 grams and 178 grams.
• Inside a kitchen drawer, numerous plastic bags were recovered, one containing 681 grams of alprazolam — the generic version of Xanax — a second containing 240 grams of blue oxycodone pills, a third bag of black methamphetamine rock weighting 3 grams and an additional 101 grams of orange amphetamine pills.
• In the kitchen cabinet, investigators found pill containers with oxycodone and MDMA and a bag of blue MDMA pills weighing 244 grams. There were also scales, plastic bags, shipping bags and a blender which contained white powder residue.
• A total of $34,617 in cash was recovered from the apartment and an additional $2,885 from the defendants’ BMW. Parts for a pill press machine coated with white powder were also recovered from the trunk of the BMW.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Michael Kelly of the New York Police Department’s Criminal Enterprise Investigation section, under the supervision of Lieutenant Jason Forgione, Captain Brian Nyhus, Inspector Osvaldo Nunez, and Assistant Chief Jason Savino.

Assistant District Attorney Jeremy H. Mo of the District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mary Lowenburg, Bureau Chief, Catherine C. Kane, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, Jonathan Scharf, Deputy Bureau Chief and Kieran Linehan, Supervisor, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard Brave.