POLICE TEST LEGAL WEAPON ON DRUG GANG

Using a new strategy and a new unit formed to break up drug
organizations entrenched in poor neighborhoods, the authorities
yesterday brought conspiracy charges against 13 men who they said were
members of a violent crack gang that had blighted a central Harlem
block for nearly 15 years.

The experimental police unit was set up to focus on drug-dealing
organizations that have been resistant to traditional police methods
like wiretaps, "buy and bust" undercover operations and crackdowns on
quality-of-life crimes.

The narcotics unit takes advantage of recent court rulings that
officials say have expanded the scope of state conspiracy law. A 1998
Court of Appeals ruling and a subsequent decision by the state
Appellate Division allow prosecutors to link a suspect's past crimes
with other evidence to charge that they were acts committed as part of
a larger conspiracy, officials said.

For example, a conviction for selling drugs from a building used by a
gang could be one of the "overt acts" that make up a narcotics
conspiracy charge, prosecutors said, along with evidence that links
the old case to the gang's operations. The rulings by the two appeals
courts found that using a previous conviction in such a way would not
constitute double jeopardy.

Prosecutors said the new tool was in some ways similar to the federal
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, commonly known
as RICO, which allows prosecutors to use various past crimes to prove
racketeering.

Prosecutors said the new interpretation of state conspiracy law was a
powerful tactic to root out enduring drug organizations because the
maximum sentence for first-degree conspiracy is 25 years to life in
prison, more severe than those for many other drug charges.

The charges filed yesterday against the 13 men identified by the
police as gang members and 11 others who were arrested on drug or
weapons possession charges during the sweeps were announced at a news
conference by Bridget G. Brennan, the city's special narcotics
prosecutor, and police officials.

"The method that we used in order to prosecute this group was
something we developed very recently and was really an extraordinarily
successful joint effort between the Police Department and special
narcotics," Ms. Brennan said. "And what was so unique about it was
that we were able to piece together the history of an extremely
violent group, which had in the past managed to intimidate those who
might otherwise have been witnesses."

The gang, which has been linked to four killings and several
shootings, used neighborhood children as young as 12 as
bicycle-mounted lookouts and runners, officials said. It enforced
ruthless discipline on a cadre of drug sellers, drawn largely from the
ranks of homeless prostitutes and drug addicts, who were paid in
crack, the officials said.

Based in two buildings, 2 West 129th Street and 2094 Fifth Avenue
around the corner, the gang sold drugs 24 hours a day, a business plan
that Ms. Brennan said drew a steady stream of customers. At its peak
during the last decade, it sold as much as $18,000 of crack in a four-
hour period, and in recent months sold about $6,000 worth of the drug
during each 12-hour shift.

The police said that charges of first-degree conspiracy were filed
against the gang's leader, Barry Watson, 30, of 1064 Woodycrest Avenue
in the Bronx, and his two chief lieutenants, Michael Hiett, 30, who is
in state prison, and Guy C. Britt, 32, of 195 Nagle Avenue in upper
Manhattan. The 10 other men said to be gang members were charged with
second-degree conspiracy, the police said; the maximum penalty for
that charge is 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.

The gang's thriving and persistent operations were centered on West
129th Street and Fifth Avenue, a block that was the subject of a
series of articles in The New York Times in February. The series
chronicled how the block had been greatly transformed by welfare
changes, a drop in violent crime, the arrival of middle-class
residents and the restoration of more than a dozen buildings. But
drug-dealing continued to plague 129th Street and many of the
surrounding blocks, residents said.

Investigators from the new unit, the Conspiracy Investigation Unit,
and prosecutors from Ms. Brennan's office began focusing on the Harlem
gang in January, she said.

The unit was formed in December after Erin J. O'Reilly, a sergeant
heading an anti-narcotics team in the Manhattan North Narcotics Zone,
joined forces last year with Susan Lanzatella, an assistant district
attorney from Ms. Brennan's office, in an effort to shut down the
operations of another deeply entrenched narcotics ring in Harlem,
officials said.

In that case, Sergeant O'Reilly worked unsuccessfully for two years to
dislodge a gang, the Black Top Crew, from two buildings where it sold
drugs on Old Broadway, the sergeant said. After she was referred to
Ms. Lanzatella, the prosecutor showed her how she and her team of six
detectives could use the new interpretation of the conspiracy statute,
and they brought a case that led to the indictments of more than a
dozen members of that gang.

Their success led to the pilot program, which Sergeant O'Reilly said
allows the Police Department to devote resources to cases like the one
announced yesterday. The cases are labor intensive, she said, because
the detectives must painstakingly review all the tedious details of
past crimes at the locations associated with the gang, reinterviewing
witnesses and debriefing detectives and officers involved in the arrests.

"It's about connecting the dots," Sergeant O'Reilly said, explaining
that defendants can be linked to the organization in many ways,
including addresses or phone numbers. Prosecutors acknowledged that
their new use of the law may face legal challenges, but Ms. Brennan
said she thought the new tactic was on firm legal ground.

Some defense lawyers agreed. Gerald L. Shargel, a prominent defense
lawyer, cited the analogous RICO law, pointing out that it has
withstood constitutional challenges based on double jeopardy for more
than 20 years. "There is little reason to find that the state courts
will find this method of prosecution constitutionally objectionable,"
he said.