When Fireworks Are Outlawed Only Outlaws Will Have Fireworks

A look at the illicit firework trade in the Bronx:

Pyrotechnics peddlers are hawking fireworks in broad daylight on a Bronx street corner, despite a citywide crackdown leading up to the Fourth of July.

“Whenever you’re looking for fireworks, just go to the beauty salon – my mom owns it,” one pusher known only as Paulie assured a customer in Hunts Point last week.

The peddler keeps his arsenal of explosives — everything from sparklers to rockets to M-88 munitions — at his house nearby, located just a block from the Ladder 48/Engine 94 firehouse and a Bronx charter elementary school.

“I can get you anything you want,” he bragged.

Paulie eagerly sold one customer $23 worth of fireworks — a dazzling array that included eight M-88s, the slightly smaller versions of the notorious M-80 explosives; four 10-pack Howling Wolf Rockets; one 12-pack of Howling Wolf Pack Bottle Rockets; one 10-pack of Jumping Jacks; two six-packs of Morning Glory sparklers; and three “lady fingers.”

He tossed in a $2 MoonBeam Missile rocket.

Paulie said that for $150, he could sell the customer a deluxe boxed package that “will put on a good show for at least an hour — your kids will love it.”

The illegal sales take place in plain sight — and kids in the area actually steer customers to Paulie, who hawks his wares while sporting knockoff designer sunglasses and a Jesus tattoo on his forearm.

He apparently works with a teen middleman, who keeps his own, much-smaller supply of fireworks for sale — and keeps an eye out for the cops.