BUSTED IN THE TUNNEL

The View From Gatien's Camp

The day after a small army of undercover narcotics cops infiltrated
the Tunnel disco and arrested 14 people on charges relating to the
sale and use of the popular dance-floor drug Ecstasy, the club's owner
Peter Gatien is in deep denial. Speaking on the phone from his Upper
East Side townhouse Sunday, he doesn't appear to comprehend that this
could easily signal the end of his lengthy but rocky New York
nightclub career. The Canadian entrepreneur, who beat the feds in a
highly publicized drug-conspiracy and racketeering case last year,
survived the Michael Alig club-kid-killer scandal, and has been
investigated more times than Tony Soprano, really seems to believe
that lawyers and loopholes will save him again. Either that, or he can
spin his way out of trouble. "Why are my clubs supposed to be the only
nondrug venues in New York?," he asks, accusing authorities of highly
selective enforcement. "Are you telling me there's no drugs at other
clubs? What about all the pot people smoke at rock concerts at Madison
Square Garden? I have my suspicions that somebody out there-- whether
it's Giuliani or the feds-- wants to put a major hurt on me." Gatien
claims the 50 hits of Ecstasy the cops seized in the 3 a.m. Saturday
raid do not constitute a major bust. "There were allegedly 10 Ecstasy
dealers arrested," he reasons. "That's an average of five hits a
dealer. So we're not talking about major drug traffickers here." But
the 50 tablets are more than enough reason for the State Liquor
Authority to refuse to renew Gatien's license for his other club, the
Limelight, and to allow police to padlock the Tunnel-- which they
reportedly intend to do this week-- under the nuisance-abatement law.

In the wake of the death of 18-year-old Jimmy Lyons from a drug
overdose at the Tunnel in January, bouncers were instructed to be more
vigilant in their search for drug use on the premises and to eject
anybody caught napping in the club. But such measures proved too
little too late.

Ironically, a few weeks prior to the raid, a spokesperson from the 10th
Precinct's Office of Community Affairs and Crime Prevention assured the
Voice that drugs weren't a major problem at the Tunnel and other major
clubs in his precinct; thanks to "good management," he said, there were
only "a few isolated incidents." But following Lyons's death at the Tunnel,
Amy LeBrecht, one of Lyons's friends who was present, told the Voice: "It
seemed like everybody was tripping their faces off. The Tunnel is a big
drug house. I know people who deal there." On one recent visit prior to the
bust, drug peddlers were clearly visible lined up outside the bathroom,
offering wares: "Wanna bump, wanna bump?" or "E. E. E."

Some of Gatien's employees are angry at their boss for not grasping
the magnitude of the drug situation. "He sends out mixed messages. The
promoters are told one thing, the security another," said one Tunnel
insider. After a recent dispute at the now squeaky-clean Limelight,
when bouncers tried to eject a promoter's friend who was smoking pot,
Gatien took the side of the promoter, and the friend was allowed to
stay. "Peter thinks he can finesse his way out of this," the
above-quoted insider says. "He doesn't realize just how serious this
is."

Still, Saturday's raid did have its comic moments, at least according
to one of the arrested suspects. The arrestee improbably claims that,
while sitting in the police van outside the club, one man busted for
selling Ecstasy slipped out of handcuffs and provided hits of E to
five or six companions, who wound up merrily "rolling" all the way
back to the station house.

Gatien's private investigator and former Nassau County homicide
detective John Damrowski-- responsible for running a team of former
law enforcement officials who work undercover at the Tunnel and
Limelight looking for drug dealers-- defends the work he does at
Gatien's clubs. He claims that since the beginning of the year, the
Tunnel has ejected as many as 250 people suspected of drug activity.
He adds that his team meets regularly with 10th Precinct officers, who
have assured him he's been doing a good job: "They're not giving us a
fair chance," he protests. "They don't do this to any other club in
New York. This is coming from the mayor's office. The cops have been
told to get Peter Gatien at all costs."

In a related development, opening arguments are set to begin this
Thursday in the federal trial of the Tunnel's manager and former head
of security Ray Montgomery, accused of allowing drug peddling.
According to sources, the government's main witness will allegedly
testify that he gave money to Montgomery to be allowed to deal drugs
at the cavernous club.