A TARGET, NOT A WITNESS

THE VICTIM of Tuesday's broad-daylight execution on Columbus Boulevard was
a target in a multimillion-dollar drug investigation that included at least
a dozen players from New York to Philly, a law-enforcement source said
yesterday.

"He was not a government witness and was not cooperating. He is a target of
ours," the source said, after erroneous reports circulated that the man had
been cooperating with the government investigation.

"He was somebody who we were going after, who was eventually going to be
indicted federally," the source added. "Looks like his buddies whacked him."

John J. Ferrante, 34, a federal drug felon, was killed about 10 a.m. by a
bandana-swathed gunman near Penn's Landing in a spray of 17 bullets, a
half-dozen of which shattered the front windshield of his GMC Jimmy
sport-utility vehicle while he waited at a red light.

Yesterday, the getaway car used in the shooting was found abandoned and
partially charred in Germantown, cops said.

The gunman and an accomplice remained on the loose last night.

Law-enforcement sources said Ferrante's Philadelphia home was searched July
6 and his arrest was imminent as a midlevel buyer in a drug organization
that could have as many as 20 members.

The source said the organization was based in Philadelphia with suppliers -
Dominican Republic nationals - operating out of New York.

The search warrant for Ferrante's home was one of 12 executed that day, two
days after an alleged drug supplier, Julian Gonzalez, 26, was nabbed as he
crossed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge with $600,000 worth of cocaine, the
source said.

Donald Berry, 35, of Federal Street near 3rd, and Gonzalez, of New York,
were arrested the evening of July 4. Investigators said the confiscated
cocaine had been destined for Philadelphia. They said the drug had been
compressed into slender tiles the size of compact-disc cases and packed
into a sport-utility vehicle.

Detectives also seized $48,000 in cash from Berry's home, about $549,000
from bank accounts, and six luxury vehicles, District Attorney Lynne
Abraham said. The two men are being held for a hearing.

Around 1 a.m. yesterday, police got a report that the Chevy Impala rental
car involved in the shooting was on fire at Germantown Avenue and Seymour
Street. When cops arrived, the vehicle was a bit charred but intact. Cops
were examining it for evidence.

"It was in fair condition, but it looked like they tried to torch it," said
public-affairs officer Sgt. Roland Lee.

Ferrante, of Atco, N.J., was no stranger to the criminal justice system.

Federal court records indicate he was convicted of attempting to sell half
a kilogram of cocaine to a drug informant in 1994. He was sentenced to
about three years in prison.

He was a mechanic at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Cherry Hill, N.J., said
his lawyer, Stephen Patrizio.

"He was a good guy," Patrizio said. * (c) 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.