CLIFTON PARK — A series of Drug Enforcement Administration raids that targeted multiple Capital Region residences last week — including a Clifton Park apartment where authorities said a 23-year-old man shot two sheriff’s deputies before he was fatally wounded when the officers returned fire — netted 40 firearms, nearly 800 grams of cocaine and thousands of illicit pills that included methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Court documents and interviews with law enforcement sources indicate Anthony Zaremski was a suspect in at least one unsolved Albany homicide and other shootings at the time of his death last week. He was tied to a small network of suspected drug dealers who had access to an arsenal of firearms. One of the men arrested last week also is connected to a notorious Albany street gang — Uptown Gunners — that was targeted in a massive federal racketeering investigation more than a decade ago.
At the same time that Zaremski was allegedly exchanging gunfire with police on Tuesday morning at an apartment off Crescent Road, federal agents were raiding a second Clifton Park apartment where Zaremski’s friend, Anthony Luizzi, was found to be in possession of five firearms, including a shotgun with a defaced serial number, and thousands of fentanyl and counterfeit Xanax pills, according to court records.
The Clifton Park searches took place as a Western Avenue apartment near the state University at Albany campus was raided that same morning. During the Albany search, police and federal agents recovered 34 firearms, 765 grams of cocaine and thousands more pills, including fentanyl and methamphetamine. Most of the drugs and some of the firearms were found in a large safe, records indicate.
Brandon Bartley lives in the Western Avenue apartment that’s in a building that also houses a child day care center on the first floor. Bartley and Luizzi were both charged with multiple federal drug and firearms offenses and remained in federal custody on Friday.
A fourth man, Jabree Jones, who grew up in Schenectady and is on parole for a 2013 federal racketeering conviction that had resulted in him serving nearly a decade in prison, was also taken into custody last week as part of the same investigation. Court records indicate Jones had keys to Bartley’s apartment on Western Avenue and had been observed frequently entering that residence by law enforcement authorities.
The address of Jones’ residence was not listed in federal court records in his case. He was arrested Tuesday and charged with multiple parole violations, including continuing to associate with members of the Uptown Gunners gang in Albany. During the search of his residence, police and federal agents seized $50,000 from his child’s closet and also found shopping and travel receipts that indicated he had traveled to California and Georgia without authorization from his federal parole officers.
Jones had faced up to life in prison when he was sentenced in 2013 as part of the federal investigation that sent dozens of area street gang members to prison. The criminal allegations in their cases had ranged from drug dealing to firearms trafficking and murder.
“This is an investigation that dates back nearly six months,” Frank L. Tarentino III, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York Division, said during a news conference following Tuesday’s raids. “This is a great example of the connection between drugs and violence. The amount of fentanyl pills that we seized today is equivalent to roughly 60,000 lethal doses removed from city streets in this community.”
Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said the deputies “announced our authority and entered the residence” before the shooting started. He said it was the first time for the department that two deputies were shot during the same incident. One of the deputies was shot in the chest but the round was stopped by a protective vest. The other deputy was shot in the leg and seriously wounded, including suffering a broken femur, the sheriff said.
A law enforcement official said the 9mm round that struck the deputy’s leg nearly hit his femoral artery, which could have been fatal. A DEA agent who is a medic applied a “double tourniquet” to the deputy immediately — which helped stem the bleeding from his wound and would have possibly saved his life had his aftery been struck by the bullet.
The sheriff’s SWAT team took part in the raid because federal agencies will seek assistance from local or state law enforcement agencies when they are conducting multiple coordinated searches at different locations.
It’s unclear what was seized from the apartment where Zaremski had been staying. Officials said the shooting transformed that residence into a crime scene so it was processed by the FBI, which was not involved in the DEA’s investigation.
Zaremski had a lengthy criminal record, including arrests for charges of attempted murder, weapons possession, reckless endangerment and drug possession. He was incarcerated multiple times, including serving one-year sentences in both state prison and Albany County jail, records show.
The investigation that led to the search warrants is being led by special agents with the DEA and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives.
State prison records indicate Zaremski was released in 2019 for a drug conviction and spent more than a year on parole. His most recent arrest was in January 2022 in the city of Albany on felony charges of criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
Zaremski was also arrested in 2020 after gunfire was reported at a home in Colonie. Police charged him and another man with attempted murder. No one was shot in that July 9, 2020, confrontation on Morris Road, and a grand jury did not indict Zaremski on a charge of attempted murder, according to the Albany County district attorney’s office.
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment on Oct. 6, 2021. The other man pleaded guilty to a felony.