Justin Barry took the stand in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to detail the inner workings of what prosecutors describe as a multimillion-dollar drug empire anchored near Washington Square Park.
Barry, a recovering addict who began working for accused kingpin John Livigni in July 2023, told jurors he first met the defendant on West Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue. The former dealer, who pleaded out in a related state drug case, is now cooperating with the government against Livigni and 18 others indicted in October 2025.
Federal prosecutors allege Livigni, who they say headed the crew known as both the “Yellow Bag Boys” and WSP Enterprise, ran the operation for at least two decades. “The defendant was a leader of a drug conspiracy that sold deadly illegal drugs around Washington Square Park,” Assistant United States Attorney Remy Grosbard said in her opening statements.
Barry described a rigid corporate structure with two tiers of employees. Workers handled hand-to-hand drug exchanges six or seven days a week, earning up to $500 daily. Managers supervised them during shifts but collected roughly $800 weekly because they stayed removed from direct transactions. “They were ‘safe’ from the dirty hands of the deals,” Barry explained.
The operation ran on three daily shifts — morning, evening and overnight — each staffed by one worker and two managers. Barry testified that color-coded packaging helped distinguish products: yellow bags contained crack cocaine, with the crew moving five or six packs per shift for about $1,800 in weekly sales.
The real profit center, Barry said, was heroin and fentanyl sold in light-blue envelopes, generating up to $7,000 weekly. Across all operations, he estimated Livigni pulled in nearly $40,000 monthly.
Jurors were shown evidence bags from Barry’s 2025 arrest containing seized drugs and packaging materials. The prosecution contends the ring distributed millions of opioid doses tied to at least 65 overdoses in the park since 2020.
Two of those cases resulted in death charges against Livigni spanning a six-month period in 2025. One victim was Bailey Shaw, an 18-year-old Colorado transplant described as a “rising star” who had just arrived for a Broadway-linked internship program. The other was a 43-year-old homeless person living in the park.
“We sold drugs over there,” Barry said of the Greenwich Village neighborhood that allegedly served as Livigni territory.
Barry is among several witnesses expected to testify as the trial proceeds. Livigni faces potential life imprisonment if convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
The case continues in Manhattan federal court.