Harvey Christian was sentenced today to 50 years in prison by United States District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Christian was convicted at trial in October 2014 on charges of racketeering -- including two murder conspiracies, firearms possession and trafficking in crack cocaine. The charges arose out of Christian’s long-time dominance of a drug crew that operated in the Park Hill housing complex in the Clifton neighborhood of Staten Island.
The sentence was announced by Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).
As proven at trial, Harvey Christian, also known as “Black," and his brother Anthony Christian, also known as “Nitty," led a violent narcotics distribution ring in Park Hill from 1991 to 2011. In the mid-1990s, the Christian brothers and their associates - including co-defendant Jason Quinn - sought to take control of more drug territory within Park Hill. To achieve this, they engaged in massive gun battles for months. Beginning in approximately 1994, the enterprise sought to expand its drug distribution operations into a neighboring apartment building, 260 Park Hill, which was controlled by a rival drug crew. This protracted conflict was known by its participants as the “260 Wars." During one of the battles, in May 1995, law enforcement recovered 77 shell casings inside a residential building, outside on the street, and on a rooftop. One of the Christian brothers’ associates was murdered in that battle. All three trial defendants - Harvey Christian, Anthony Christian and Quinn - were convicted on all counts at trial. Judge Vitaliano previously sentenced Anthony Christian to life in prison and Quinn to 40 years in prison.
Leading up to the arrests of the Christian brothers and Quinn in 2011, multiple search warrants and arrests related to members of the enterprise and their associates were executed in and around Park Hill and elsewhere in New York. These searches and arrests resulted in the seizure of firearms and ammunition, including a Mac-11 pistol, as well as large quantities of crack and powder cocaine. During a search of the Christian brothers’ apartment in the Park Hill housing complex in February 2010, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) recovered multiple bullet-proof vests, crack cocaine and marijuana. When Quinn was arrested in 2011, a search of his home recovered crack cocaine and a firearm.
Ms. Rohde extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI, the NYPD, and the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Allon Lifshitz and Richard M. Tucker.
The Defendant:
HARVEY CHRISTIAN
Age: 44
Staten Island, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 11 CR 425 (ENV)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
