A convicted drug dealer arrested in connection with an “around-the-clock,” open-air crack cocaine operation in New York City’s Times Square is back on the streets after his federal prison sentence was commuted in January by then-President Joe Biden. 

Johnny “Ghost” Perez, 32, was handed down an eight-year sentence following his 2021 arrest and was one of 2,500 federal inmates who had their sentences commuted by Biden on Jan. 17, according to the Justice Department. 

Perez was rounded up with other drug dealers in a raid by local and federal authorities.

Former President Joe Biden provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“One ‘shift’ arrived in the late morning and made sales through the late afternoon, and then other defendants arrived and sold through the evening and nighttime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release at the time of the arrests.

“Although there was no set composition of defendants for the two shifts, defendant Aaron Starks was often present and overseeing the first shift, and defendant Johnny Perez was often present and overseeing the second shift,” a DOJ news release said at the time of Perez’s arrest. 

Perez was sentenced to eight years in prison, and Starks was given a sentence of six years before Biden reduced their sentences. 

A bag of crack cocaine seized from a Times Square drug dealing operation. (NYPD)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Bureau of Prisons. 

More than 3,000 people were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Biden in the final days of his presidency. Some were issued to his own family members, such as James Biden, Hunter Biden and Valerie Biden-Owens.