A New York City man is suing Burger King for $15 million for allowing a location to be turned into an “open air drug bazaar” that’s ruining the surrounding neighborhood.
The restaurant in question is located on Fulton Street, just blocks away from City Hall. Despite its proximity to the office of Mayor Eric Adams (D), local resident Kevin Kaufman says a group of eight to 10 “professional drug dealers” have all but completely taken over the spot.
Kaufman, a 69-year-old filmmaker who has lived on the block for 20 years, said in the multi-million-dollar lawsuit filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court that the store is a “base of operation” for selling drugs.
In a recent investigation conducted by the New York Post, a group of eight men and one woman were seen blocking the store’s location for hours last Tuesday, “with one man acting as a doorman with a cup seeking change.”
When people made it inside the restaurant, they appeared to be offered drugs for sale by the horde.
Two of the men were reportedly spotted openly drinking vodka as another smoked marijuana and “peddled loose cigarettes to Burger King customers leaving the restaurant, passersby and his associates.”
Reporters from the Post even observed the group’s ringleader holding “meetings” while the alleged criminal activities were going on:
Members of the group repeatedly entered and exited the restaurant, never ordering food, and used the desolate space as their office. The apparent leader of the group sat at a table while sipping coffee from a Dunkin’ cup and holding meetings with associates. Another member plopped down at a window seat to monitor the traffic outdoors while rolling joints.
“We’ve reached out to every direction we can and the only ones that seem to be responsive and listening are the cops,” Kaufman told the publication. “Cops are doing everything they can to get rid of these people, but they’re handcuffed. It’s this idiotic bail reform. They have arrested a couple of people, but they are back within 24 hours.”
According to Kaufman, franchise owner Lalmir Sultanzada holds much of the blame.
The 66-year-old Long Island resident is an immigrant from Afghanistan who also owns a Popeyes, a Dunkin’ Donuts, and several other fast-food spots around the city.
“He doesn’t take responsibility, he throws it on the lap of the cops instead of hiring security himself and policing his own store,” Kaufman told the outlet.
His lawsuit is targeting Sultanzada as well as Burger King’s corporate office, accusing the company of violating New York’s private nuisance law.
“Fulton Street is now a neighborhood in crisis,” Kaufman wrote, referring to the gang of shady individuals as “professional drug dealers who have long criminal records and are well known among local law enforcement.”
According to the filmmaker, Burger King needs to “stop terrorizing his neighborhood and turning Fulton Street into an open air drug bazaar.”
Sultanzada says that he believes the group hanging out in his store to be a problem as well, but hiring his own security would be too expensive.
“That’s not my problem… It’s up to the police. I’m not selling drugs,” the fast food franchise king fumed. “If I’m going to close the store. Who’s going to be responsible for my loss?”
“They’re hanging around, they throw everything inside the stores. A couple of times they hit one of my managers,” Sultanzada continued, adding that the NYPD is not “paying attention.”
“It’s not me. Go talk with the government, talk with the police department, talk with the mayor, talk with the governor,” he added. “They have to find a solution for those bums, not me.”
Since the beginning of 2023, 143 emergency calls to 911 were placed in relation to that particular Burger King, police said.
“This is around the corner from the mayor, his office is right there, and it’s like ‘Dude, clean up your neighborhood,” another disgruntled neighbor who has been living on Fulton Street for 15 years told the outlet.
According to the other resident, who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, the store “is never busy, the only people in there are poor, homeless or dealing drugs.”
“At least there’d be a mix [if] you go to McDonald’s… you’ll never see people from the neighborhood in there because it’s a shitshow.”
A third concerned neighbor questioned how the franchise is even staying in business, “and why isn’t [Burger King] doing anything about it?”
“The people that scare me are the people this crowd attracts,” he said. “They’re not mentally safe… There are hours of the night where we no longer feel safe walking our dog. That’s a problem.”
He added that he sees people at the store every day who are “clearly fucked up on drugs” and frequently hears homeless people in “an absolute terrorizing screaming match.”
A shocking video posted to X by the account “Fulton St Coalition” shows a brawl between two men, with one slamming the other into the pavement outside the Burger King.
Totally agree the city is a mess and Fulton St in NYC has now full gangs that have taken over the streets. Open drug dealing and harassment of community members. @BurgerKing is housing the gangs and getting cut. pic.twitter.com/VBg86DVmie
— Fulton St Coalition (@Fultonstcoalit) January 5, 2024
An NYPD spokesperson told the Post that “quality of life complaints remain a real concern to residents in all city neighborhoods.”
“The NYPD deploys our officers where crime is reported in response to community complaints and will continue to address these conditions as the public demands and expects we should,” the spokesperson added.
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