ICE CREAM TRUCK ALSO DID DRUG BUSINESS, POLICE SAY

NEW YORK CITY - Despite its merry tunes and brightly
colored exterior, the ice cream truck that plied the streets of
Bensonhurst was not your typical dispenser of summertime treats for
the boys and girls of Brooklyn. For one thing, the truck was known to
chase after children on bikes, according to a neighborhood resident.
For another, there were often three or four teen-agers inside, more
than was needed to dole out ice cream cones and Popsicles. All this
may have made the truck just another neighborhood oddity, were it not
for the other things it sold: bags of hashish and marijuana along with
the Batman bars and Rocket pops, according to investigators. And on
Thursday, the police said they had arrested seven people on charges of
either buying or selling drugs from the ice cream truck. "It was full
service: ice cream, bonbons and weed," said Sergeant Richard W. Miller
of the 62d Precinct, who led a sting operation that finally put the
truck out of business.

"This certainly isn't the usual in Bensonhurst," he added, "at least
not out of an ice cream truck."

The police said they got wind of the drug truck when undercover
officers tried to make a purchase from some dealers at Satellite Park
two weeks ago. The dealers said they were out of stock, and suggested
that the buyers instead wait for "the good humor man."

When the truck failed to show, the police went searching, finally
catching up with it at Seth Low Park around 6:15 P.M. on Thursday.
Among the seven people arrested were the truck's driver, Alexey
Zagrebin, 20, and his helper, James LaPointe, 19.

The five others happened to be in line to buy drugs at the truck with
the undercover officers. Two 17-year-old boys in front of the officers
bought two $10 bags of hash, then resold them to three 15-year-old
boys waiting on the curb. "I don't know if it was an age requirement
or what," Sergeant Miller said, chuckling. "They just wouldn't sell to
the 15-year-olds. But when our officers got up, they had no problem
selling to them." The police said that Zagrebin, LaPointe and the two
17-year-old boys have been charged with criminal sale of a controlled
substance, which carries a prison term or juvenile-detention term of
no more than six years. They said the three 15-year-old buyers were
charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, which
carries a term in juvenile detention of not more than one year.

The police seized six $10 bags of marijuana and 12 similar bags of
hash from the truck at the time of the raid. Zagrebin told the police
that his mother had bought the truck for him in hopes that he would
get a job. According to the police, Zagrebin and LaPointe traveled a
daily route around the neighborhood schools and three local parks just
in time for children to be getting out of class. And for four months,
they were making good money at their illegal trade, Sergeant Miller
added, noting that Zagrebin "claimed to be making only $200 a day on
ice cream, while getting $300 a day for drugs." Residents around Seth
Low Park agreed that the ice cream men had a following, though few had
suspected the full extent of the offerings. Mark de Marco, a
27-year-old landscaper, said he often saw the truck around the park
when he played basketball with friends.

He said one of the men in the truck was rude, barking at those
standing in line requesting ice cream.

Angel Caro, 30, said that one day he was helping his 4-year-old son,
Eduardo, along the park's edge, when the truck began speeding toward
some children riding bicycles nearby. "I was coming out with him, and
one guy in the truck started to accelerate very quickly, to chase a

couple of kids," he said. When he went to chastise the driver, the man
said he was just "trying to knock them over."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady