No one is denying it, but no one can
Quote of note:
Some residents said the indictments were unjust. Others said they would further endanger an already dangerous neighborhood.
Nicole Thomas, a resident of the Remeeder project, said the drug crews in her building protected residents from rival crews in nearby neighborhoods. "The people who got arrested are the same people who protect us and our kids," she said. "Nobody here feels more safe" after the arrests.
I actually feel drug prohibition is more damaging to society than drugs. This quote is a perfect example of why I feel that way. That plus Iran/Contra.
Mieka Johnson, 26 and a resident of Remeeder, said her cousin and uncle were arrested. She disputed the district attorney's estimate of the drug operation's revenue. "We live in crumbling, roach-infested buildings," she said. "These cops are talking about people here making $11 million. None of us here are making that kind of money."
Not like that fact is going to help, baby girl…
69 Indicted in Drug Ring at Projects in Brooklyn
By ANTHONY RAMIREZ
Sixty-nine people, most of them members of five closely linked families, have been indicted on conspiracy charges that accuse them of cooperating as one enormous narcotics trafficker to peddle heroin and cocaine in Brooklyn housing projects, prosecutors announced yesterday.
The oldest suspect is a 61-year-old woman, while the youngest, from another family, is a 16-year-old boy.
At a news conference, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, described what he called an unusual criminal enterprise. He said the accused divided up drug territories covering 34 buildings in the Remeeder, Unity and Long Island Baptist public housing projects in East New York, not far from Kennedy International Airport.
Suzanne Corhan, head of Mr. Hynes's major narcotics investigation bureau, said the drug organizations, or crews, were especially difficult to investigate because of their blood ties.
She declined to say whether any family members cooperated with the investigation, which lasted 18 months and was nicknamed Operation Family Affair.
Mr. Hynes said the total annual revenue of the gangs, which operated for two years, was $11 million. At a pier in Red Hook where the news conference was held, Mr. Hynes displayed a 35-foot boat and seven luxury vehicles seized from the suspects, including a Cadillac Escalade and a van with a plasma television and a satellite dish. He said the boat and the vehicles may have been useful in the drug trade to attract customers and as covert meeting places.
"But I think they were mostly for fun," Mr. Hynes said later, in an interview.
