Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Jessica Heyliger was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for heading a ring that sold guns and ammunition brought to Queens from the south via the Interstate 95 “Iron Pipeline.”

District Attorney Melinda Katz said: “This defendant trafficked illegal lethal weapons with no regard for the bloodshed and misery they could visit upon our communities. She is being held accountable for her callous acts. We will not relent in our efforts to stop illegal weapons from coming into our communities.”

Heyliger, 39, of Lakewood Avenue in Jamaica, pleaded guilty on July 11 to criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Stephanie Zaro today sentenced her to 10 years in prison plus five years post release supervision. Heyliger was the main defendant and principal dealer of weapons in the case that had been dubbed Operation Tiger by the NYPD.

Sharod King, Heyliger’s codefendant and the sole salesman of guns to an undercover officer, had previously pleaded guilty to criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree and was sentenced in May to nine years in prison. Additional codefendants Mitchell Myree and Laquan Benson previously pleaded guilty in connection with this case.

According to the charges:

• The investigation into this gun-trafficking ring began in September 2019 when King sold an undercover police officer a handgun and two large capacity ammunition feeding devices. In December 2019, the court authorized electronic surveillance on King’s mobile phone.
• During the investigation, which concluded in July 2020, the defendants sold an undercover police officer 23 guns in 13 separate transactions, as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition and more than 10 high-capacity magazines.
• All the weapons and ammunition that were sold by the ring were acquired by Heyliger, who brought them up from the south via the Iron Pipeline.

Assistant District Attorney Charles Dunn, of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jonathan R. Sennett, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of Investigations Gerard Brave.