POLICE SHUT DOWN SYRACUSE DRIVE-UP WINDOW FOR DRUGS

SYRACUSE - You can't get drink trays or extra packets of ketchup at 381
Cortland Ave.

What you could get at a drive-up window was a buzz - the kind crack cocaine
addicts crave - after ringing the buzzer and placing an order, police said.

Detectives heard for several weeks that people in the rear apartment of the
five-unit building had followed the fast-food concept and opened a drug
trade business through a back window. Customers simply could ring the
buzzer, place an order, and pick up their drugs.

"I've never heard of anything quite like this," Lt. John Corbett, a
detective working on the case, told The Post-Standard of Syracuse. "This is
the first full-service drug window I've ever seen."

The property has a long driveway that loops around the back of the house
where the window is. The buzzer was installed near the outside window sill,
Lt. Joe Cecile said.

Investigators spent several days watching the operation, then obtained a
search warrant and stormed the building in mid-March.

Nobody was home, but police did find more than two ounces of crack cocaine
with a street value of about $6,500, a digital scale, cell phones and
dozens of small plastic bags for packaging.

The police waited inside. They were amazed at what happened.

"We're inside cracking up because people are coming up to the house,
ringing the bell and getting mad that no one's home," Corbett said.