AMID CHANGE, A RECORD YEAR FOR NARC COPS

A LIGHT WIND whips through Hunting Park on a blustery morning,
tossing leaves and cigarette butts from one deserted street corner to
another.

Jim Coolen Jr. settles into the cramped rear of a dilapidated van
that he will call home for the next eight to 12 hours. The musty
vehicle creaks and groans every time Coolen moves. Most days, it has
all the warmth and comfort of an igloo.

But the van is the perfect cover for Coolen, a veteran undercover
narcotics cop, allowing him to watch a notorious local drug kingpin
and his henchmen blatantly conduct their trade on the street. It's
all part of a choreographed surveillance operation run by Coolen and
other cops in Narcotics Field Unit 2.

The unit spent two months earlier this year shadowing the main
players of the drug outfit as they moved in and out of the
neighborhood. They recorded numerous transactions and videotaped the
dealers, who repeatedly sold cocaine to undercover officers.

And, when the time was right, the good guys took down the bad
guys.

Because of operations like these across the city, the Police
Department has seized more drugs in 2006 than in any other year.

As of Dec. 21, police have confiscated $135 million worth of
narcotics and 1,251 guns, compared with $79 million and 1,010 weapons
by the same date in 2005. They have seized $11.5 million in drug
money; last year's figure was $6.3 million.

When cops succeed, they take back one more drug corner from dealers
and return it to residents of the block.

Often, police lock up dealers who are heartbreakingly young. Some
kids enter the drug trade by the time they're 12, veteran cops say.
Dealers recruit and pay them to be neighborhood lookouts, to shout
"Agua!" or "Five-O!" as a warning every time they spot a police officer.

By 13 or 14, they attain veteran status, which brings spoils -
including firearms.

That troubling reality hit home with Sgt. Robert Friel of Field Unit
2 when he searched a suspected drug house in Frankford last May.

Friel stormed up to the second floor and found a 14-year-old boy
asleep on a mattress. "I picked him up, and found that he was
sleeping on a .40-caliber gun," Friel said. "The main dealers in that
house were him and his brother, who's 13. One of them was still in
eighth grade. We even found a sawed-off shotgun and an assault rifle
in their basement."

Youngsters are regularly recruited by drug dealers because "unless
they're involved in a shooting, nothing legally significant will
happen to the kids," Friel said. "They get arrested and then they're
right back on the street again."

If they remain free, they move up the drug hierarchy. Between ages 13
and 17, they are educated and elevated to the position of "corner
boys." They typically handle resealable plastic bags stuffed with a
dozen or so bags of crack cocaine, selling 10 of the smaller bags at
$5 a pop for their boss' profit.

The corner boys sell the remaining bags and keep the proceeds, giving
them a taste of a profitable lifestyle.

Corner boys grow up

By the time they're old enough to vote, the young dealers have
branched out as entrepreneurs, or "independents," cops say. They buy
bulk amounts of crack and develop their own clientele and recruit a
new roster of dealers.

These older, more sophisticated drug dealers draw the attention of
narcotics officers.

"We're seeing a lot more" of 20-somethings buying bulk amounts of
drugs to supply others, Friel said. "These young guys start out as
street hustlers, move up the chain quickly and move into big-time
sales. They make enough money to easily buy drugs in bulk amounts."

They cleverly store their stashes in rented homes, sometimes in
unusual locations. Friel said an increasing number of wealthy dealers
are renting homes in Northeast Philadelphia, keeping their stashes
far away from clients and rivals in other parts of town. "It's
quieter, and they're not selling from the [rented] properties, so
they don't draw attention," Friel said. "They feel like it's safer up
there."

Alleged drug supplier Darnell Romel Bolger, 26, thought he was a step
ahead of the game by storing his massive stash - more than $6.1
million worth of crack, cocaine and marijuana - on Levick Street near
Trotter, in Oxford Circle.

But in late November, cops said, Bolger was shot outside his home by
would-be rivals planning to raid his supplies. Bolger recovered from
his wounds and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on a host of
drug-possession charges Feb. 9.

It will be the 11th time since 1999 that Bolger has stood before a
judge facing drug charges, according to court records. In almost
every previous case, the charges were dismissed.

"They get a slap on the wrist," Friel said. "The ramifications of
getting locked up and going to court are minimal. Nothing happens to
these guys."

Still, narcotics cops keep chasing their prey. Arrests of drug
dealers are up by more than 4 percent this year, with 5,834 dealers
locked up as of Dec. 10, compared with 5,433 last year. Arrests of
buyers also increased more than 2 percent, to 3,524. Cops have
served more narcotics-related search warrants - 1,760, compared with
1,537 last year.

"The increase in the level of narcotics seizures is an indication
that the officers are working harder, and that there's a significant
problem that we're trying to tackle out there," said Capt. Benjamin
Naish, head of the police Public Affairs Office.

As cops ramp up their pursuit of dealers - and worry that corner boys
and lookouts seem to be getting younger and younger - there are
always the memorable exceptions.

Narcotics Field Unit 2 - Sgt. Friel, Officer Coolen, his father,
Officer Jim Coolen Sr., and Officers Matt Beattie, Michelle Proctor,
Reggie Fernandez, Jimmy Kidd, Jeff Galazka and Walt Szmatowicz -
spent two months studying and ultimately capturing a band of
middle-aged dealers who have long run several corners in Hunting Park
like their private property.

Their primary target was a familiar one: Luis Rios, a portly, balding
middle-aged man who, cops say, had a hugely profitable cocaine ring.

In 2001, Rios and his cohorts were arrested by Field Unit 2 officers
after undercover cops purchased cocaine from his Hunting Park store,
the Rios Mini Market, as part of their investigation. They recovered
$545,000 in cash from Rios' home on Fanshawe Street near Whitaker
Avenue in Lawn Crest, along with cocaine and marijuana stashes and
seven firearms at several other properties.

Yet when the alleged drug kingpin met his law-enforcement adversaries
in court following his '01 arrest, Coolen Jr. said, Rios, 53, was all
smiles as he talked about his lost loot. "He said, 'I'll make it
back!' " Coolen Jr. recalled, shaking his head.

Softball teams and crack

Sure enough, Rios beat his charges and Coolen Jr. received a tip in
early February of this year that Rios and his gang of graying dealers
were up to their old tricks again. They even set up shop at their old
stomping grounds outside Rios' rundown mini-mart, on the northwest
corner of 8th and Cayuga, and his shuttered deli across the street.

"They've changed their habits," Coolen, an 11-year veteran, mused one
morning while staring at the mini-market's faded stucco walls and a
trio of tattered Puerto Rican flags that hung from second-floor
windows. "There's a lot of moving around this time around, but
they're still pretty active."

Coolen could recite the dealers' routine from memory: Two paunchy
guys in their mid-to late 50s would gather by 8 or 9 a.m. outside
Rios' properties, sit on old milk crates with small amounts of drugs
stuffed in paper cups or underneath the crates, and wait for the
neighborhood drug trade to hum to life.

The dealers were clad in jackets touting "Los Ardilleros," supposedly
Rios' softball team, though cops doubt that a real team ever takes
the field. Usually, the men looked like a pair of harmless
old-timers. But they pulled off drug deals quickly, speedily swapping
coke and weed for a wad of bills.

Informants bought $40 or $60 worth of green-tinted zip-top bags that
tests found were packed with cocaine. Rios' every move was monitored
by the team, who regularly joked about his age and weight. "We do
have fun," Coolen Jr. said. "We're relaxed with each other, and we
all enjoy working together. Obviously, it shows."

They also enjoy a familial bond that extends beyond Coolen Jr. and
his dad. "He's been around for longer than mostly everyone here, so
in some ways, he's like a father figure to the whole squad," Coolen
Jr. said. "It's like working with your best friend."

Added Coolen Sr.: "He would be out here doing this without me, so
it's great to be here, close to him."

In April, Coolen Jr. videotaped an undercover officer purchasing 12
bundles of cocaine for $220 from Rios and one of his cohorts. They
quickly cobbled together a plan of attack, and targeted April 12 as
the day they would once again take down Rios.

Nearly everyone was unnerved by a tip that Rios had numerous weapons,
including AK-47s and Uzis.

"All you can do is cross your fingers and pray," Coolen said shortly
before 9 a.m. that day, once again scrunched over in the back of the
old van. "My stomach's in knots, doing flips. You just want everyone
to get through this safely."

The order for the takedown was given about two hours later, prompting
police cruisers to swarm Cayuga Street, seemingly out of nowhere.
Rios' henchmen seemed stunned by the flashing lights and sudden
activity. They didn't run.

In all, narcotics cops served 12 search warrants that day. They made
seven arrests, impounded four vehicles, and recovered 18 guns and
almost $47,000 in cash. They also recovered 25 grams of cocaine worth
$2,500; 1,075 grams of marijuana worth $21,500; seven grams of PCP
worth $700, and 247 Xanax pills worth $1,235.

Before long, Rios was brought to Cayuga Street in a white Nissan
Altima. At first, Coolen Jr. said, Rios insisted that he no longer
sold cocaine. When he realized that he was accused of selling coke to
an undercover agent, he changed his tune and begged to talk, Coolen
said. Rios faces drug and weapons charges and is scheduled to appear
in court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 23.

"Look, you always hope for a home run when you go out there," Coolen
Sr. said last week, before heading out on yet another investigation.
"It feels good when you do get one. Most of us have families, and
this job can be brutal on them. But when you make a really a great
seizure, you feel like you're doing some good. It makes you feel that
it's all worth it."