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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Stray gunshot through neighbor’s wall leads cops to NYC drug stash house, feds say

A stray bullet that sliced through a wall in Brooklyn led authorities to a stash of guns, crack and cash, according to authorities.  (U.S. District Court of Eastern District of New York/TNS)
By John Annese New York Daily News

NEW YORK – Talk about a bad shot. A stray bullet that punched through a neighbor’s wall led police and the feds to find a suspected Brooklyn drug dealer’s stash of guns, cocaine and cash, prosecutors allege.

Trouble started mounting for 30-year-old Kevin Tapia on Nov. 17, when one of his Brooklyn neighbors on the third floor of their Bay Ridge apartment building heard a loud noise around 10:30 p.m.

The 40-year-old neighbor then noticed a hole in the wall of his apartment hallway, which abuts Tapia’s unit, and a bullet on the floor, according to a criminal complaint.

He called 911, and police responded to the building, at Parrott Place near 92nd Street, shortly afterward.

When police arrived, they saw someone believed to be Tapia tossing a package out of a window, according to the complaint.

The receipt had Tapia’s name on it, and the package held more than a kilo of cocaine, the feds allege.

Tapia then tried to escape down the fire escape of the same window but fell onto a second-floor landing, where even more drugs fell out of his pocket, the feds allege.

Cops got a search warrant and found a treasure trove of drugs, guns and ammo, including a duffel bag containing an AK-47 rifle and six handguns, all loaded, along with hundreds of bullets; plus a safe with nearly 2 kilos of cocaine, $107,000 cash and three handgun magazines.

They also found another 3 kilos of pot, nine oxycodone pills, two cash-counting magazines and a body-armor vest in the apartment, the complaint alleges.

Police hit Tapia with a slew of state charges after his arrest, including criminal possession of a weapon, drug possession, reckless endangerment and machine gun possession.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn stepped in and hit him with federal drug and gun charges, as well.

A federal judge on Friday ordered him held without bail at MDC Brooklyn jail.

Tapia’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.