A Westbury man pleaded guilty to selling deadly narcotics, including fentanyl, and possessing explosive materials in his home.
On June 18, 2025, Anthony Gianatiempo left his residence on Cantiague Lane in Westbury on an electric bicycle and went to Cantiague Park to sell drugs to an individual in the park.
In exchange for $820, Gianatiempo sold a package containing a small clear plastic bag of a green powdery substance, later confirmed to contain heroin, cocaine, and other cutting agents; one clear plastic bag containing a white and gray powdery substance determined to be fentanyl, ketamine, and heroin; one clear plastic bag containing a white powdery substance, later confirmed to be cocaine; and several white tablets containing alprazolam.
A veterinary tranquilizer, xylazine, also known as “tranq,” was also present in the white and gray powdery substance that tested positive for fentanyl.
Based on the investigation, a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence on August 5, 2025, by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which recovered:
- 63 grams of heroin
- 39 grams of fentanyl
- 69 grams of methamphetamine
- Cocaine
- Ketamine
- Brown cardboard tubes with fuses wrapped in blue and black tape and a bottle wrapped in black electrical tape with a fuse found in the defendant’s basement bedroom
- Smokeless powder attached to the defendant’s bedroom door
- Counterfeit money
The narcotics were found throughout the basement, in Gianatiempo’s room, and in the workstation area outside of his bedroom door in the basement.
Along with the illegal narcotics found in Gianatiempo’s home, 15 grams of N-Pyrrolidino Isotonitazene, a nitazene compound that is a dangerous and powerful synthetic opioid, was recovered in a black handbag on the floor near the defendant’s bedroom.
Under New York State’s Public Health Law, N-Pyrrolidino Isotonitazene is not listed in the Schedule I through IV, and therefore, cannot be charged unless it is found mixed with another already scheduled substance. Three other nitazenes — Clonitazene, Etonitazene, and Isotonitazene — are currently listed in the Public Health Law. Several other known substances classified as nitazenes are also excluded from the current law.
Gianatiempo, 34, was arrested in Hicksville by members of the NCPD on August 5, 2025. He pleaded guilty on June 2, 2026, before Judge Caryn Fink to Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree (a Class B felony) and Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the First Degree (a Class C violent felony).
The defendant is expected to be sentenced to six years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on August 7, 2026.
“This defendant had a dangerous assortment of narcotics and explosives that posed a threat to his Westbury neighbors and all residents of Nassau County,” said Nassau DA Anne Donnelly. “Anthony Gianatiempo peddled fentanyl, heroin and xylazine, highly addictive and deadly drugs, and had a stash of a synthetic opioid known as nitazene, an unscheduled drug that is shockingly not illegal to possess in New York State despite its potency and increasing prevalence in overdose deaths across the nation. We do not want to see nitazene become the next fentanyl. It is past time for New York to revisit its drug laws and deliver a significant blow to the ongoing opioid crisis we are facing in our communities.”