RED HOOK DRUG TRADE $50M A YR.

Red Hook drug dealers were making as much as $140,000 a day - $50
million a year - until an undercover sting brought them down this
year, District Attorney Charles Hynes said yesterday. Despite the
real estate boom in Red Hook and the opening of a new Fairway market
and a cruise ship terminal, drug dealers were terrifying tenants of
the Red Hook Houses.

"Despite all the changes, the residents were under siege by drug
gangs," said Hynes, describing the booming drug business. "The
numbers are astounding."

Flanked by Red Hook residents, Hynes announced a 374-count indictment
against 143 people, saying he would seek maximum sentences of up to
25 years to life in prison for dealers who used minors to sell crack,
heroin, marijuana and powdered cocaine.

"We're not going to tolerate people in our community to be treated as
second-class citizens," he said. "They are the real victims.

"It's not going to be permitted for drug dealers to hold them captive."

The flourishing drug trade run by more than 150 dealers is four times
the $12 million take estimated last month at a news conference by
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly when he announced the massive
Police Department-district attorney's office bust.

But residents were not so sure the benefits of the drug busts, though
appreciated, would stand the test of time.

"There's a slight difference," said Andrea McKnight, 61, who
described how she saw youths grow up in the houses and turn into drug
dealers during her 37 years there.

"After a while, they stop looking at you. It's sad for us also," she added.

"I don't know if it's going to last. Drugs have always been there."

She and other residents described having to dodge gunfire and
violence to avoid getting harmed in drug disputes, and having to
bypass areas where drug deals were going down.

Hynes said the gangs divided the houses into 17 sections and 32
buildings to conduct business.

He said the dealers collectively decided who was allowed to sell
drugs, where, the cost and how lower-level dealers would get paid.

Frances Brown, a patrol officer at the houses, said the area is much
less dangerous since the arrests.

"It feels much better," she said.