Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Chris Lee, 30, has pleaded guilty to gun possession and drug sale charges. The defendant was caught carrying an illegal firearm and was observed during a long-term investigation selling both guns and cocaine between August 2019 and January 2020.

District Attorney Katz said, “There is probably no combination that endangers our communities more than illegal guns and drugs. This defendant has now admitted to selling both and faces serious prison time. Every illegal gun in our borough is a potential tragedy and we continue to do everything in our power to stop the bloodshed and the poison of drugs from flowing on our streets.”

Lee, of Sanford Avenue in Flushing, Queens, pleaded guilty this morning to two-counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll. The defendant will be sentenced on June 15, 2021, at which time he faces nine years in prison.

According to the charges, the defendant was the target of a long-term investigation into gun trafficking and drug dealing in Queens County. Between August 2019 and January 2020, the defendant sold three firearms to an undercover detective for cash – a defaced .38 revolver, a 380 semiautomatic pistol with a laser aiming device and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and more than 100 rounds of ammunition.

During that same period of time, according to the charges, the defendant also sold cocaine and methamphetamine to a buyer, who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.

Assistant District Attorney Kathryn O’Neill, of the District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mary Lowenburg, Bureau Chief, Catherine Kane and Jonathan Scharf, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, Hana Kim, Unit Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard A. Brave.