Convicted NYC drug dealer who ran Times Square operation out of prison after Biden commutation

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A convicted drug dealer arrested in connection with an “around-the-clock,” open-air crack cocaine operation in New York City’s Times Square is back on the streets after his federal prison sentence was commuted in January by then-President Joe Biden. 

Johnny “Ghost” Perez, 32, was handed down an eight-year sentence following his 2021 arrest and was one of 2,500 federal inmates who had their sentences commuted by Biden on Jan. 17, according to the Justice Department. 

Perez was rounded up with other drug dealers in a raid by local and federal authorities.

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Federal prosecutors said Perez oversaw the second shift of the drug sale operation, which lasted between at least December 2019 and August 2021.

“The defendants operated a veritable 24-hour open-air bazaar for the sale of crack cocaine in Times Square,” then U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said. “We recall the bad old days of a much seedier Times Square that was unwelcoming, and we are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those days remain just a memory.”

At the time of Perez’s arrest, authorities seized drugs and a stack of cash.  (NYPD)

Authorities called the $10,000-a-week crack operation a “24-hour open-air bazaar operating in around-the-clock shifts at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue,” the New York Post reported. 

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“One ‘shift’ arrived in the late morning and made sales through the late afternoon, and then other defendants arrived and sold through the evening and nighttime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release at the time of the arrests.

“Although there was no set composition of defendants for the two shifts, defendant Aaron Starks was often present and overseeing the first shift, and defendant Johnny Perez was often present and overseeing the second shift,” a DOJ news release said at the time of Perez’s arrest. 

Perez was sentenced to eight years in prison, and Starks was given a sentence of six years before Biden reduced their sentences. 

A bag of crack cocaine seized from a Times Square drug dealing operation. (NYPD)

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Bureau of Prisons. 

More than 3,000 people were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Biden in the final days of his presidency. Some were issued to his own family members, such as James Biden, Hunter Biden and Valerie Biden-Owens.

Louis Casiano is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to louis.casiano@fox.com.