POLICE BREAK UP D.C.'S LARGEST PCP RING

Some Accused of Dealing Near NE Elementary Schools

Law enforcement officials yesterday said they have dismantled the largest
PCP ring in the District after a two-year investigation that targeted a
Northeast Washington gang and its suppliers in New York.

The announcement came as authorities were rounding up suspects named in
indictments returned by a federal grand jury. Twenty-six people face
charges in the case, including many who allegedly sold the drug in an area
near 18th and M streets NE.

Authorities said the ring peddled PCP to customers from the District,
Maryland and Virginia, sometimes within 1,000 feet of elementary schools.
The drug, known for the unpredictability and violence it produces in users,
has surged in popularity in the past few years, and authorities have blamed
it for contributing to homicides and other crimes.

"PCP has been making a comeback, and today's message to drug dealers should
be 'Not in our city,' " said Mary Lou Leary, principal assistant U.S. attorney.

Officials declined to estimate the volume of PCP that allegedly was sold
but said the drug organization could turn out to be one of the largest in
the nation. They said investigators seized $1 million of PCP in the probe.

As of last night, 11 suspects had been arrested in the Washington area,
three in New York and one in Atlanta. Six others already were in custody on
other charges. The others were being sought.

Authorities executed more than 25 search warrants yesterday, most of them
in Maryland, where many of the defendants live. Agents seized 16 weapons,
including four assault rifles, as well as PCP, heroin, ecstasy and more
than $100,000.

PCP, the full name of which is phencyclidine, can produce hours of a
frenzied high. The drug was popular in the District in the 1970s and '80s,
when it was known as "Love Boat" or "Buck Naked," because many of its users
shed their clothes while high. But the drug's popularity in Washington
faded as crack cocaine took over.

Authorities began charting the drug's comeback in recent years. Now, 9
percent of adults arrested in Washington have PCP in their system -- much
less than the 37 percent who test positive for cocaine but about the same
amount that test positive for heroin, according to figures from the D.C.
Pretrial Services Agency, which does drug testing for the courts.

The drug has been blamed for a series of homicides in the District in
recent years, in which PCP users have turned suddenly on friends, relatives
and strangers.

The indictments, totaling 92 counts, were returned in U.S. District Court
in Washington. They capped an investigation by the FBI's Safe Streets Task
Force, which includes D.C. police. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents also worked on the case. The suspects were charged with conspiracy,
drug distribution, drug possession and other offenses, officials said.

The indictments charged that Robert P. Bascom and Abdul Smith, both 31 and
of New York, secured large quantities of PCP, sometimes from California,
and shipped the product to Herbert Eugene Martin of Laurel.

Martin, 37, then distributed the drugs to the 18th and M gang, allegedly
headed by John L. Franklin, 31, of the 1300 block of Belmont Street NW, the
indictment said. The crew also sold crack and ecstasy but focused primarily
on PCP, authorities said.

The indictments charge that some members sold the drugs within 1,000 feet
of Webb and Miner elementary schools and Friendship Edison Junior Academy,
all in Northeast Washington, in violation of a federal law.

Thomas G. Kinnally, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington field
office's criminal division, said the indictment is an example of the
tentacles that outside suppliers have on violent criminal enterprises in
the District.

Neighbors in the Northeast Washington neighborhood applauded the arrests.

"I'm ecstatic," said Kathy Henderson, an advisory neighborhood
commissioner. "This means the citizens who have been suffering for years
can breathe a sigh of relief."

The drug dealers "had absolute control over the whole area," Henderson
said. "My constituents were afraid to leave their homes."