STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island man was one of 20 people busted in a heroin and fentanyl ring that led to two fatal overdoses, authorities announced Thursday.

Curtis Wright, 31, aka "Curt," is charged with two counts of conspiracy and criminal possession of a controlled substance for his role the in the Brooklyn-based operation, officials said.

Wright's two co-defendants, Akeem King and Robert Gonzalez, allegedly ran the ring and have been charged with operating as a major trafficker, conspiracy and various counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

In July, Wright warned King that three police officers were conducting surveillance from a car, stating, "There's three of them in there, they got the binoculars lookin' at the building," prosecutors said.

Later that same day, Wright told King that he had directed other participants in the organization to "shut it down" and "don't dope nobody" when the cops returned, officials said.

King and Gonzalez, both of Brooklyn, were the suppliers and allegedly sold heroin laced, in at least certain cases, with fentanyl analogues under the brand name "American Dream" in and around two housing projects in Brooklyn.

Authorities claim King oversaw a group of at least 14 other dealers, many of whom were selling thousands of glassines of purported heroin in multiple public housing developments in Brooklyn. During the investigation, an undercover police officer bought more than 200 glassines of purported heroin from one of King's dealers for over $2,000. Gonzlaez, officials said, provided more than $10,000 in purported heroin at a time to King.

During the investigation, police learned of three drug overdoses, including two fatal overdoses and one non-fatal overdose, believed to be linked to this brand name, prosecutors said.

Investigators claim Gonzalez supplied not only King's organization, but another street-level dealer, Darren Lee, aka "Ice."

Lee, officials said, is charged with selling heroin laced with fentanyl analogues to a 33-year-old mother, who suffered a fatal overdose on a subway train in Brooklyn last December.

Police found she had three unopened and two opened individual dose glassine envelopes of heroin stamped "American Dream." Lab tests revealed the envelopes contained a mixture of heroin and two fentanyl analogues, furanyl fentanyl and para-fluorobutyryl fentanyl, authorities said.

Last week, an undercover officer pretending to be the deceased woman contacted Lee and and arranged a sale, officials said. When Lee got to the meeting, he was met by detectives who found him to be in possession of multiple glassines of heroin and placed him under arrest.

Lee, of Brooklyn, is charged with conspiracy and criminal possession of a controlled substance, authorities said.

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid approximately 50 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl and its analogues are driving a spike in fatal overdoses, which reached an all-time high of approximately 1,374 deaths in New York City in 2016, officials said.

This is a 46 percent increase over 2015, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which attributes roughly half of these deaths to fentanyl.