Drug Crackdown Nets Gang Members

NEW YORK —  More than 100 members of seven gangs were indicted Friday on charges of operating a $5.5 million-a-year crack cocaine business that catered to the “suit-and-tie” crowd in midtown Manhattan, police and prosecutors said.

Seventy-seven of the 102 defendants charged in what Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau called “one of the largest drug busts in city history” were already in custody.

They will be arraigned Tuesday, and the others are being sought.

The accused are charged with conspiracy, attempted murder, assault, and gun and drug possession. They could get 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the top count of conspiracy.

Friday’s indictments stem from a 10-month investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the New York Police Department.

“This is an important case because not only did it identify and dismantle seven drug gangs . . . , but it also put out of business gangs . . . involved in significant violence,” Police Commissioner Howard Safir said.

“The customers of these drug gangs were garment workers and midtown executives,” he said.

Prosecutors said 27 of the defendants are members of the Bloods, a violent street gang that police say had its origins in California in 1970. The Bloods’ New York division was founded in 1993 at Rikers Island jail.

Morgenthau said members of the Gangsta Killa Bloods communicated with one another about the gang’s drug activities by flashing signs and signals and by speaking in code. He said gang members, wearing red scarves or bandannas, met at various midtown locations.

Gang members were also accused of using youths under the age of 16 to sell drugs, act as lookouts or carry crack or cocaine for them, the prosecutor said.

Morgenthau said the gangs, working in shifts around the clock, operated out of a West 38th Street hotel and nearby pool hall.

Guns, knives, blackjacks and a crossbow with darts were among the weapons discovered by police when the defendants were arrested.