Daryl Hunter, 42, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of money laundering and one count of maintaining a place for the distribution of a controlled substance. A judge sentenced Hunter to 60 months in prison.
Hunter will forfeit about $1 million in proceeds from selling heroin, including five golf simulators, two Rolex watches and an airplane, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Hunter flew to Portland, Ore., to buy heroin that he stored and sold in Alaska out of an Abbott Loop residence.
The federal government said Hunter made another purchase with drug money: a $200,000 down payment for rights to use the Wings 'n Things name and the chicken wing recipes that made the local restaurant a standby for wing lovers.
Hunter told a Daily News reporter before the store's January 2009 opening at 36th Avenue and Arctic Boulevard that he hoped to make it a franchise. He owned a golf pro shop before buying into Wings 'n Things.
"I think in five years you're going to see franchises everywhere," he said at the time. "I'm telling you, it's going to be big. Everywhere. In the United States."
Hunter doesn't own the restaurant any longer, according to Wings 'n Things, but that's not because Hunter had to forfeit it, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
But he will have to forfeit five golf simulators, valued at $54,500 each, two Rolex watches that cost a total of $18,475, and a 1947 Stinson aircraft he put $30,000 on as a down payment. The plea agreement does not note the plane's full value.
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