Nov. 30, 2023 By Bill Parry
A Flushing couple has been charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and other crimes after a search of their penthouse apartment on Nov. 28 uncovered more than $654,000 worth of drug, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Amanda Chen, 39, and Sheng Lin, 42, of Northern Boulevard, were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Nov. 29 on a complaint charging them with 17 counts of possession and criminal use of drug paraphernalia.
According to the charges, at approximately 10 a.m., on Nov. 28, investigators stopped the couple as they were exiting the parking garage at their residence on Northern Boulevard near 146th Street in Flushing. A court-authorized search warrant executed on their home resulted in the discovery of a stash of drugs throughout the penthouse apartment, including amphetamines, MDMA — also known as Ecstasy or Molly — 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, according to the charges. 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, the charges allege. 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, according to the charges.
“We will not allow drug dealers to set up pill mills and peddle poison that could do untold harm in our communities,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “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.”
Queens Criminal Court Judge Jessica Earle-Gargan ordered the defendants to return to court on Dec. 1. If convicted, Chen faces up to 20 years in prison and Lin up to 24 years.