MAJOR DRUG BUST SMASHES RING IN CITY, VALLEY, NYC

NEW HAVEN - A nearly weeklong sweep through two New Haven neighborhoods,
Ansonia and New York culminated Tuesday in the city's biggest drug bust in
five years, one that took down an entire family and thwarted weekly
shipments of crack into Greater New Haven. New Haven Drug Task Force agents
arrested 29 people from Hamden to upper Manhattan in the five-day raid,
including a 69-year-old man who allegedly dealt dime bags out of his Howard
Avenue home and a Bronx woman who worked for the district attorney's office
while allegedly running drugs state to state.

The raid took out Richard "Richie" Mack, 29, an alleged Island Brothers
gang member known as a heavyweight dealer in Fair Haven. Sources said the
entire investigation began with his alleged drug fiefdom in the Quinnipiac
Terrace public housing complex, then found roots in New York and branches
in Ansonia and the Hill.

In all, the sting netted four arrests in New York - including the ring's
alleged Latin American and Dominican suppliers - two Waterbury residents
accused of spreading crack through Ansonia, eight alleged dealers based in
the Hill neighborhood and 15 more in Fair Haven.

"This was a prolific crack cocaine trafficking organization in New Haven
and Ansonia supplied by these sources in New York," said Peter D. Markle,
the assistant U.S. attorney who heads major drug gang investigations.

Federal prosecutors said the three branches of the investigation were
related by their source, the brothers Jamil "Pachuco" Sari and Fareed
"Nickels" Sari. The investigation, launched in November, kept Drug
Enforcement Agency agents and police from New Haven and West Haven on the
street for months making buys, taking video and listening in on wiretaps.

In the Hill neighborhood, the bust ripped a huge swath through the Reed
family - from 52-year-old alleged ringleader Albert Reed Sr. to his son,
Albert "Jughead" Reed, 31; his nephew, Roshawn "Bebe" Reed, 26, and his
stepdaughter, 19-year-old Sharice Mills.

Patricia Reed flatly dismissed the allegations when asked about the arrests
Tuesday morning of her husband, Albert Reed Sr., and three family members.
She shouted the same epithet in court, after Markle called Roshawn Reed a
"serious risk to the community" because a search of his Truman Street home
uncovered a bulletproof vest and an ammunition loader.

Magistrate Judge Joan Glazer Margolis, who arraigned 13 of the defendants
Tuesday, ordered all of them detained until their attorneys could "put
together a package" that would secure their release. All but one of the 29
defendants is facing 10 years to life in prison on charges of conspiring to
distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base.

Roshawn Reed could be facing the most serious penalties because of his
prior narcotics convictions. If he's convicted in this probe, the
government could seek a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison
because of his lengthy record, which includes an escape from custody.

Prosecutors said Jamil Sari, 29, was already in custody at New York's
Rikers Island jail when agents executed the first raids in New York on
Thursday. Fareed Sari, 33, was presented to a New York judge and awaits
extradition to Connecticut; Bronx women Joselina Salcedo-Felix, 23, and
Rosa Traveras, 28, were both arraigned in Bridgeport on Thursday.

Police sources said Traveras worked at the Bronx District Attorney's office
during the day while she ran drugs for the New York crew at night. During
the course of the probe, investigators worked with the DA's office to
isolate and investigate her.

Assistant U.S. Attorney H. Gordon Hall said agents in the New York raid
seized three cars - including Mack's station wagon - four guns, a kilo of
powdered cocaine and at least $340,000 in cash. Sources said the vehicles
were outfitted with secret compartments for stashing drugs and money.

Another raid on Saturday culminated in the arrest of Mack and several
others, who were arraigned Monday in Hartford. The alleged Ansonia dealers
- - John Sanders, 33, and Alicia Crews, 35 - have not yet turned themselves in.

Raids in New Haven on Tuesday turned up at least one other gun and more
drugs, prosecutors said.

Hall said 1.3 kilos were found on Mack and Rodney Brandy, 33, of New Haven.
Agents on Tuesday were still tallying up the loot taken in blitzes that
began before the sun came up.

The investigation took wing when, after months of looking at Mack's Fair
Haven operation, task force members convinced Judge Janet C. Hall to let
them tap into Mack's telephone calls, sources said. On the line, they
reportedly intercepted conversations with a Dominican cocaine supplier out
of New York City who would deliver drugs to Connecticut.

The investigation shifted to the Empire State, and another wiretap of the
New York source's telephone. Investigators learned that the outfit was
supplying three separate drug organizations in Connecticut - one in the
Hill, one in Fair Haven and one in Ansonia.

Authorities said Albert Reed Sr. was running 1.5 kilograms every seven to
10 days to feed his Hill operation. "Thirty thousand cash every seven to 10
days," one source said.

Reed allegedly continued even after police conducted a raid prior to this
week's bust and seized the whole stash - more than a kilo.

"His operation continued the next day," said the source.

Albert Reed Sr., Mack, Brandy and several others face additional charges of
possession of crack with the intent to distribute, which carries a 20-year
prison maximum. Also charged under that statute were Kente Douglas, 25, of
High Street in Ansonia; Moses "Mo Black" Bryant, 29, of Arch Street in
Hamden; Schymon Robinson, 24, of Truman Street in New Haven and Jamie
"Jamie McCoy" Mills, 32, of State Pier Road in New London.

Julius "Tupac" Garner, 37, of Dixwell Avenue in New Haven faces a maximum
four years in prison for allegedly using a telephone in facilitating the
drug conspiracy. The oldest man charged, Pinkney "Pinky" Suggs Jr., 69, is
facing 10 years to life under the indictments handed down Sept. 5.

Alleged associates of the Hill operation possibly facing 10 years to life
include: Willie "Batman" Newton, 44, of Norton Parkway and Regina Bell, 39,
of Howard Avenue.

Alleged associates of the Fair Haven crew possibly facing 10 to life are:
Ernest "Solo" Williams, 26, of Russell Street; Tyree Robinson, 24, of
Eastern Circle; Marquise "Scooby" Weston, 21, of Belden Street in Hamden;
Jeffrey "Biscuit" Harrison, 21, of Elliot Street; Herbert Lowery, 18, of
Pine Street; Frederick King, 20, of Blatchley Avenue; Herbert "Frank White"
McPherson, 27, of Howe Street; Matthew "Nu-Nu" Bowden, 30, of Division
Street and Mia Taylor, 28, of Eastern Circle.