Charles McGriff, who dumped OD victim on side of the road in Floral Park, pleads guilty to drug charges

A Queens man accused of dumping a woman who overdosed on fentanyl onto a snowy Floral Park street in February 2022 pleaded guilty to drug charges Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, authorities said.

Charles McGriff, 43, of Rosedale, acknowledged in court that he sold the fentanyl that led to the woman’s nonfatal overdose. He will be sentenced at a later date, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

McGriff’s attorney, Matthew Kluger, of the Bronx, did not respond to a request for comment.

McGriff, who worked at Kennedy Airport for a cargo handling company, transporting mail sent through the airport, pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of fentanyl, authorities said.

According to court papers filed by Peace’s office, a delivery driver told the Floral Park Police Department about an unconscious person lying in the snow on the side of Spruce Avenue on Feb. 3, 2022. Floral Park officers who responded found the woman and administered an anti-overdose medication, which revived her. She was taken to a hospital and treated for an overdose.

Police recovered wax envelopes and glassine bags containing what was later determined to be fentanyl and crack cocaine from the woman, court papers said. An investigation launched by the Department of Homeland Security determined the woman had purchased drugs from McGriff on several previous occasions.

The woman contacted McGriff the afternoon she overdosed to purchase heroin and crack cocaine, according to court papers. He met her in Valley Stream and supplied her with the crack and fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid responsible for most of the fatal overdoses nationwide in recent years. McGriff then agreed to drive the woman home.

Court papers said the woman ingested two bags of fentanyl, which she believed was heroin, and became unconscious in McGriff’s car. McGriff stopped the car and exited it. He opened the passenger door, dragged the victim out of the car and deposited her on the side of the road. The incident was recorded on a front-door camera of a nearby home, prosecutors said.

“When faced with the victim’s overdose — directly beside him in his own car — the defendant chose not to drive the victim to a hospital or even to call for help,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. “Instead, the defendant chose to put the victim in further danger by depositing the victim in the snow by the side of the road, leaving the victim for dead, and driving away.”

The investigation revealed that McGriff had a history of selling drugs to the victim and others, and that he continued to sell drugs even after the woman had overdosed, prosecutors said. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.