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Jason Liriano, 25, of Brooklyn–also known as “jay bigfella”–was sentenced to 22 years behind bars in Central Islip federal court on Tuesday, April 29. It followed his September 2023 guilty plea to drug trafficking and firearms charges.
Tuesday’s sentencing marked the final chapter in a wide-reaching crime spree that spanned New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Liriano founded the Route Boys gang, which committed more than 100 break-ins at pharmacies, bodegas, check-cashing stores, and even ATMs between 2020 and 2022, according to prosecutors. The stolen drugs—including oxycodone and codeine cough syrup—were quickly sold on social media, fueling the gang’s illegal drug operation.
He wasn’t just a behind-the-scenes figure. He helped plan burglaries, dealt drugs himself, and was caught with guns and large amounts of cash and narcotics, investigators said.
Pharmacy Raids
Investigators say the Route Boys’ crime spree escalated dramatically in 2021 when the gang began targeting small, independently owned pharmacies across the Tri-State area. Under Jason Liriano’s leadership, the group carried out dozens of late-night break-ins, often smashing their way through windows to quickly grab prescription medications — including oxycodone, Xanax, and promethazine-codeine cough syrup.
According to federal prosecutors, the Route Boys hit pharmacies in Nassau, Suffolk, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, and Rockland Counties, as well as across New Jersey and Connecticut, stealing controlled substances and immediately turning around to sell them on social media platforms.
Prosecutors estimate the gang committed at least 100 burglaries between late 2020 and mid-2022 — thefts that directly fueled their street-level drug trafficking business. The group often used stolen vehicles with fake license plates to avoid detection during their multi-stop burglary sprees.
A Deadly Crash
Among the most tragic moments in Liriano’s years-long crime spree was a fatal crash on Christmas Eve 2020 that took the life of Ritawantee Persaud, a 54-year-old accountant and passenger in an Uber.
Investigators said Liriano was speeding through Queens in a stolen Lamborghini with fake license plates, fleeing police and driving at an “extremely high rate of speed” when he slammed into another car at the intersection of 103rd Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard. The crash destroyed both vehicles. Liriano crawled from the wreckage and fled on foot, leaving behind two bags of marijuana and a firearm.
He later pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court to criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced to one and one-third to four years in prison. But federal officials say Liriano showed no remorse.
A sentencing memo submitted by former US Attorney Breon Peace to District Judge Gary Brown reads: “There was no evidence of remorse. Instead, Liriano’s concern was about his weapon; specifically, he texted a co-defendant, ‘bro my [expletive] gun.’”
Federal prosecutors went on to say that the judge in the state case was not aware of the broader criminal enterprise that Liriano was leading at the time of sentencing.
Jailhouse Violence
Even behind bars, Jason Liriano’s violent behavior didn’t stop.
According to federal prosecutors, in July 2024, while being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, Liriano launched a vicious attack on a fellow inmate — an orderly who was delivering breakfast. Prosecutors say Liriano dragged the man into his cell and began stabbing him repeatedly with a sharpened metal weapon, known as a “shank.”
The victim suffered multiple stab wounds, including to his face and back, and required medical attention. A nine-inch sharpened screw, wrapped in cloth, was later recovered from Liriano’s cell.
The stabbing, along with other incidents — including contraband phones, drugs, and weapons found in his cell — factored heavily into the government’s push for a longer prison sentence.
“Liriano dared anyone to get in his way of his life of crime,” Peace writes in the memo. “The Eastern District of New York will be a safer place with Jason Liriano incarcerated for a lengthy term.”
Nine other members of the Route Boys were previously sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 15 years.
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