Authorities in Nassau County have announced what they described as one of the largest gun trafficking takedowns in the county's history, seizing dozens of firearms and charging six people in a case that officials say pulled a dangerous arsenal off the streets. The defendants walked out of a police precinct with their faces covered on Friday morning, as prosecutors laid out the scale of an operation they had spent more than a year dismantling.
The numbers at the center of the case were striking. Officials said they recovered about 47 firearms, some of them fitted with high-capacity magazines, along with 150 grams of heroin and roughly a kilogram of cocaine. Investigators framed the seizure as a significant blow, warning that any single one of the nearly 50 guns had the potential to do untold damage in their neighborhoods, their region and their state.
The investigation had modest beginnings. It started with a routine car stop in April 2025, a pullover that led to an arrest and the discovery of a single gun. From there, over the course of a 14-month inquiry that officials said relied on technology, forensics and traditional police work, detectives uncovered a broader network selling both drugs and firearms across the region.
Prosecutors identified the six people arrested as Andrew Petgrave, 37, Robert Petgrave, 30, Jamari Purrier, 35, Raheem Smith, 22, Clayton Solomon, 48, and Shaheed Folkes, 25. According to authorities, they face a combined total of 13 crimes and more than 100 counts, including criminal sale of a firearm and criminal sale of a controlled substance, charges that reflect the volume of guns and drugs officials say passed through their hands.
The reach of the operation extended well beyond Nassau County. Officials said guns were trafficked into Valley Stream and Queens, and that some of the weapons had been stolen from across the United States before ending up on Long Island. Investigators added that some of the firearms taken off the street had already been used in shootings, both in Suffolk County and as far away as Alabama.
For officials, one detail stood out as especially alarming. The district attorney said some of the illegal gun sales were happening in the middle of the afternoon, right across the street from a school on the border between Queens and Nassau, as children were walking out the doors. That proximity, authorities suggested, underscored how brazenly the sellers were operating in plain view of the community.
The district attorney said the defendants are suspected to be members of a violent Jamaica-based gang, tying the case to organized criminal activity rather than isolated dealing. Officials cast the takedown as the culmination of a lengthy and painstaking effort, and said that removing the defendants and their arsenal from the street would make the surrounding neighborhoods safer.