INSIDER INFORMATION COULD HELP AUTHORITIES TARGET DRUG KINGPINS

They were known in law enforcement circles as "suppliers to the
suppliers," father-and-son narcotics traffickers who sold cocaine in
bulk to big-time drug dealers in Philadelphia and its suburbs. In the
spring, Ricardo McKendrick, 56, and Ricardo Jr., 36, were arrested in
one of the biggest drug raids in city history.

On April 2, authorities found 274 kilograms of cocaine - more than 600
pounds - stashed in the elder McKendrick's South Philadelphia
rowhouse. They also uncovered more than $1 million in cash, most of it
in the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz parked in the garage of the younger
McKendrick's house in Woodstown, N.J.

Authorities touted the bust as a major blow to the city's multimillion
dollar narcotics trade.

"We are taking the city back" from drug dealers who bring "death and
destruction to our streets," Mayor Nutter said the next day, at a news
conference attended by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and
then-U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan.

Last month, with little fanfare and no media attention, the
McKendricks entered guilty pleas in the case.

Potentially more significant, it appears that at least one of them
could be cooperating with law enforcement - a development that could
lead to several other cases.

"They know everybody," said a detective who asked not to be identified
because of his role in continuing investigations. "It would be a major
break."

If either McKendrick has flipped, investigators will have access to
inside information about the movers and shakers who populate
Philadelphia's highly secretive and violent drug underworld.

"It could be monumental," said Sean Patrick Griffin, a professor at
Pennsylvania State University and former Philadelphia police officer
who has written two books on black organized crime in the city.

"They know the landscape. They've known it for decades," said Griffin,
whose book Black Brothers Inc. places the elder McKendrick in the
hierarchy of the Philadelphia Black Mafia in the 1970s.

He was a "narcotics entrepreneur, a businessman-drug dealer," Griffin
said.

Authorities have described the McKendricks as expediters, highly
compensated brokers who bought from out-of-town suppliers in bulk and
sold to local distributors who funneled drugs to neighborhood dealers
and street-level traffickers.

"The sheer amount of drugs and money involved in this case is truly
staggering," a federal prosecutor wrote in a pretrial document that
described the McKendricks as part of a "large-scale drug-distribution
ring."

Father and son are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court
Judge Gene E.K. Pratter in March. They have been held without bail
since their arrests.

The elder McKendrick has pleaded guilty to a drug-conspiracy charge.
He faces 10 years under terms of a plea agreement filed in federal
court on Dec. 10. Originally he was looking at mandatory life.

McKendrick Jr. - known as Li'l Rick - entered a guilty plea on Dec. 3,
but documents relating to his plea agreement are filed under seal and
unavailable for public examination.

Though it is not the only reason, records often are sealed in cases
involving individuals who are cooperating with authorities. The move
is intended to protect them from retribution and to keep
investigations that come from information they provide secret.

Contacted last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Tsao, the prosecutor
in the case, declined to comment on McKendrick Jr.'s status and would
not respond to questions about why parts of his court record had been
sealed.

McKendrick Jr.'s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, said he could not talk about
the case.

Arnold Joseph, who represents the elder McKendrick, said his client
was not cooperating. Joseph called the potential 10-year sentence a
fair deal, but would not comment on whether the father had benefited
from any arrangement worked out by his son.

Ricardo McKendrick Sr. has a string of narcotics arrests dating to the
1970s. Among other things, sources say, he was a suspect in the murder
of a Black Mafia member who was decapitated.

The younger McKendrick was jailed in 1995 on assault and weapons
charges and served about a year in prison. He has no other arrests.

In a memo filed during a detention hearing in April, Tsao said the 274
kilograms of cocaine found in the elder McKendrick's rowhouse had a
street value of roughly $28 million. It was "one of the biggest drug
seizures in the history of the city," he said.

"The sheer quantity of the drugs involved in this case confirms that
the defendant is a major drug supplier," Tsao wrote in separate memos
seeking to bar each defendant from obtaining bail.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about the case ever
since.

The McKendricks were arrested after being targeted by the FBI and the
Philadelphia Police Department's Narcotics Bureau.

Tipped by an informant that a major shipment of cocaine was due at the
elder McKendrick's rowhouse at 2606 Federal St. in the city's Grays
Ferry section, investigators set up surveillance.

After observing McKendrick Jr. engage in what appeared to be two drug
transactions at the home on the night of April 1, they moved in,
according to an affidavit submitted by Detective Andrew J. Callaghan,
an investigator with the FBI's Violent Gang and Drug Task Force, which
worked the case.

According to the affidavit, McKendrick Jr. was followed as he drove
away and was stopped after briefly trying to elude police.
Investigators found $54,971 in plastic bags in his Ford 500.

A police dog trained to sniff out narcotics had a positive reaction to
the front doors and trunk of the car, the document states.

Police then obtained a search warrant for the house on Federal Street.
At 1:15 a.m., as the elder McKendrick walked toward his door,
authorities closed in.

In addition to the cocaine, police found a loaded .38 caliber handgun,
$6,028 in cash, packing materials, and a pressing machine used for
making kilogram "bricks" of cocaine.

Most of the cocaine was stored in seven 55-gallon drums, police said.
There were also several bricks.

Federal agents then obtained a search warrant for the Salem County
house and Mercedes-Benz of the younger McKendrick. Authorities found
$982,144 in duffle bags in the trunk of the car, which was parked in
the garage of a two-story house on Rockwell Lane in Woodstown.

McKendrick lived there with his wife, Dawn Edge McKendrick, a lawyer
with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in
Philadelphia.

Investigators discovered an additional $9,243 in the house, which is
in an upscale neighborhood around the corner from a golf course and
just a few blocks from Woodstown High School.

McKendrick and his wife bought the property, valued at about $400,000,
in 2002 shortly after it was built.

At the time of his arrest, McKendrick owned a newsstand at 54th Street
and City Avenue, near St. Joseph's University, according to court
documents. He held a license to operate a Pennsylvania State Lottery
machine at the site.

"They were quiet, never said much," a Rockwell Lane neighbor said last
week. Like others on the block, he asked not to be identified because
of the nature of the case.

"They would wave and say hi, but they never socialized with anyone. No
one ever knew what he did for a living," he said. "I guess now we know
why."

Nutter, according to reports from the news conference when the
McKendricks were charged, said the case underscored the deadly nature
of their business.

"It's about drugs, it's about turf, it's about money," he said.