The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office arrested a Brooklyn drug dealer last night with an unusual M.O.: Mina Gatas, 20, is accused of selling cocaine out of an ice cream truck.
The DA’s office said the surveillance video above captured the drug deal that went down between Gatas and an undercover officer in Gatas’ co-owned ice cream truck.
District Attorney Charles Hynes was appalled at the manner in which Gatas sold his goods.
“He brazenly sold large quantities of drugs right from the ice cream truck while children bought their ice cream just a few inches away,” Hynes said.
Gatas also worked at a halal deli in Bay Ridge, which is where the DA’s undercover officer first made contact with him. Gatas apparently told the officer “that he could get him some narcotics,” according to a press release from the DA’s office.
The two exchanged numbers and apparently chatted frequently over the next few days in anticipation of the sale. Gatas allegedly sold drugs to the officer on two separate occasions: once in his car near the deli, where Gatas touted how much money the officer would make reselling the 13 grams of cocaine he was purchasing – after “diluting” the goods — and a second time inside the ice cream truck at Owls Head Pier at Shore Road and 69th Street.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said this is the ice cream truck where 20-year-old Mina Gatas sold cocaine and Oxycodone.
The second time, the officer followed Gatas into the ice cream truck, requested a vanilla cone, and passed Gatas a hat with money in it. Gatas placed cocaine and Oxycodone pills in the officer’s hat, asked him if he wanted sprinkles, and gave him an ice cream cone. On that occasion, Gatas bragged about the quality of the drugs. This deal was caught on surveillance camera.
Gatas faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.
Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat
