UPPER MANHATTAN DRUG INVESTIGATION NETS 25

NEW YORK - Two long-term investigations of heroin and crack cocaine
dealing in and around a housing development have resulted in the
arrests of 25 people, prosecutors said Friday. Two other suspects were
being sought.

Drug sales took place inside the Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem and
across the street at a community grocery store and a Chinese takeout
restaurant, said Jennifer Kushner, spokeswoman for the Manhattan
district attorney's office.

Kushner said 15 of the defendants, including the two still at large,
were indicted Friday on charges of criminal sale of a controlled
substance, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. She said
most of those defendants live in the Polo Grounds, and some are
members of the Bloods gang.

Kushner said 12 others were arrested Thursday after a separate
investigation and arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on various
counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a
controlled substance, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, and unlawful
possession of marijuana.

Both yearlong investigations resulted from numerous community
complaints about drug dealing and drug-related gang violence in and
around the Polo Grounds houses, which extend from 155th Street to
159th Street, between the Harlem River Drive and Frederick Douglass
Boulevard. The complex, which has four 30-story buildings with 1,612
apartments, is home to 4,236 residents.

Police executed 13 search warrants in apartments in the housing
complex and elsewhere, and they used a warrant to search a safe
deposit box in a bank.

Items they recovered included two handguns, stun guns, more than
$21,000 in cash in an apartment, $53,800 in a safe deposit box,
narcotics, photos of defendants flashing gang signs, and a photo of a
defendant posing with a gun in front of the Polo Grounds.