POLICE SAY DRUG RING THRIVED BY SAYING, 'WE DELIVER'

Domino's it wasn't, but the service was still swell -- at least until the
police placed an order.

Such was the end of a Queens operation described by law enforcement
investigators as a "customer friendly" full-service drug-delivery business.
Clients, the investigators said, would call saying "we're hungry," and
cocaine or marijuana would arrive soon thereafter to satisfy their
appetites.

"They operated much like a pizza delivery service," an investigator, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the drug business. "It was
immediate gratification. And if a customer didn't like the batch he got,
they would always discount the next. They wanted to keep the customer
happy."

The 13 people arrested included 2 brothers, 2 married couples, a retired
correction officer and a man named Giuliani -- no, not that one. All of
them were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and
conspiracy to sell it, the Queens District Attorney, Richard A. Brown,
said. If convicted, each would face up to life in prison.

According to the District Attorney's office, two suspects, Georgios Botonis
and his brother, Lambrino, started their business around 1990 in the
shadows of a larger operation known as the Michaelidis Crew.

Hemmed in, the Botonis brothers and their minions sold small bags of
cocaine and marijuana in Queens, their annual revenue topping out at a
meager $250,000. But the brothers were able to expand their scope last
June, when the police swooped down on the Michaelidis Crew, arresting 20 or
so members, prosecutors said.

From their bases in Astoria and Long Island City, the Botonis brothers
branched out into Flushing, Queens, and Westbury on Long Island,
prosecutors said. With little competition, their revenues mushroomed to
more than $2 million a year, they said.

Dealers employed by the Botonis brothers were supplied with pagers.

When an order was placed, a delivery man would rush to the customer's
location and hand off what the Botonis brothers apparently referred to as
"food," Brown said. But the business collapsed Tuesday night when Queens
detectives and investigators executed four search warrants.

Among the properties searched was the Flushing home of Maurice Giuliani,
29, where officers found 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, prosecutors said. The
District Attorney's office said that Giuliani appeared to be no relation to
Rudolph W.