Police, U.S. Agents Seize Marijuana Dealers in Greenwich Village

NEW YORK City detectives joined federal agents Thursday in Washington
Square Park to arrest dozens of marijuana dealers who the authorities say
return again and again after serving short sentences.

The park at the foot of Fifth Avenue has been known since the 1960s as an
outdoor drug market, but in recent years it has become a main target in the
Giuliani administration's quality of life campaign.

The joint city and federal operation focused on eight defendants who were
charged under the socalled federal schoolhouse law, which prohibits the
sale of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, because it carries stiffer
penalties. Those defendants will each face a minimum of one year in prison.
Fifty others were arrested under the state law for sale or possession of
marijuana.

The arrests came after a fourmonth undercover investigation by the New
York City Police Department's narcotics division in lower Manhattan, which
focused on dealers who are considered repeat offenders.

One man arrested in the sweep, John Outerbridge, had previously been
arrested about 75 times for selling marijuana and was wanted on 25
outstanding drug warrants, police said.

Some people said the sweep led to chaos as officers prevented them from
leaving the park while the arrests were being made.

Lloyd G. McNeill, a Rutgers University professor, said he was detained in
handcuffs after pleading with the officers to let him keep an appointment.
He was later released and not charged.

Deputy Inspector Michael J. Mandel of the Police Department's narcotics
division said that marijuana trafficking in the park has remained notorious
because under state law penalties for distributing small amounts of
marijuana seldom result in jail sentences. Mandel said the Police
Department called on federal authorities to help them apprehend dealers who
had been known to sell drugs in the park for months or years.

"The residents in the area and everybody who lives and works near the park
and the Police Department were fed up with the continued sale of narcotics
over the years," Mandel said. "What we did is target the recidivists who
were selling marijuana, and we think that if we take them out that should
break the back of the problem in the park."

Detectives seized a pound and a half of marijuana and charged the 50 people
with selling or possessing small amounts of marijuana in plastic bags. One
man was charged with trying to bribe a police officer to let him go. Two
men from Jamaica who were arrested by officials from the Immigration and
Naturalization Service face deportation.

Eight suspects, including a married couple, were charged under a federal
complaint, unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Seven were
arrested for selling halfounce or oneounce bags of marijuana to
undercover police officers within 1,000 feet of either the Little Red
School House on Bleecker Street or St. Joseph's School on Washington Place.
Authorities are still searching for the eighth suspect.

The sweep began at 12:30 p.m. Thursday as undercover officers entered the
park to buy marijuana. As suspected dealers left the park, they were
arrested, Mandel said.

Toward the end of the sweep, though, police sealed off the exits to the
park, allowing no one to enter or leave.

"At the end of the day, we found that it is the most efficient way to round
up the dealers," Mandel said. He added that he was not aware that anyone
had complained about not being able to leave the park and that many people
in the past have been supportive of the actions taken by police officers
during such drug sweeps.

But some who observed the sweep said they were disturbed by how it was
carried out.

"They were saying no one could leave," said Joseph Rubin, 65, a retired
writer who was walking his dog in the park during the sweep. "There were a
lot of mothers with baby carriages and small children. There were students
trying to get back to class. There was a mass of people at the exit."

McNeill, the professor at Rutgers, said he was handcuffed after he tried to
leave the park to keep a 5:30 p.m. appointment. He said the police officer
in front of the barrier blocking the exit told him, "Sir, if you come
around the barrier, I'll have to handcuff and arrest you."

McNeill said he walked around the barrier and was pushed in the chest by
the officer. He said he was pushed again and then handcuffed after the
officer called for backup. He was later released and said a supervisor
apologized to him.

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
said his organization is investigating McNeill's complaint.

"I didn't know the law, but I felt there was something wrong with keeping
people in the park like that," McNeill said. "Especially innocent people
who did nothing wrong."

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company