The Merchandise

PUSHERS PEDDLE TWIN TOWERS HEROIN

It was bound to happen sooner or later, with the image of the World Trade
Center being used to sell everything from key rings to coffee mugs. This
week, the police raided an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and
recovered 91 glassine envelopes of heroin stamped with the brand name Twin
Towers.

Law enforcement officials said yesterday that the brand showed up on the
streets within a few weeks of Sept. 11.

Sandy Ceballos, 29, the man arrested in the raid Wednesday afternoon on the
apartment at 322 Rodney Street, was charged with possession of drugs,
paraphernalia and weapons and could go to prison for as long as 25 years if
convicted.

In addition to the bags of heroin, worth $10 apiece on the street and
stashed in a box under Mr. Ceballos's bed, the police found an electronic
scale, two grinders, a strainer, a loaded semiautomatic pistol, a
.22-caliber handgun and a rifle scope, said Avery Mehlman, the narcotics
bureau chief in the Brooklyn district attorney's office. They also found a
stamp bearing both the words "Twin Towers" and an image of the buildings,
Mr. Mehlman said.

"It's a drug factory," Mr. Mehlman said. "He's packaging and preparing
heroin for distribution."

Heroin dealers have long used grimly humorous brand names meant to indicate
the obliterative punch their products pack. Bazooka, Knockout, Volcano and
Body Bag are only a few examples.

"People in certain areas equate a certain brand name with a quality that
they're comfortable with," Mr. Mehlman said. "It's like any brand name, of
anything in life."

Other names attempt to capitalize on users' interest in current events.

"There was a brand called W.N.B.A. -- when they started the women's
basketball league, that was big," Mr. Mehlman said. " 'Titanic' was big
when the movie was a hit. It had a picture of the ship going down.

"They take this stuff seriously."

Tasteless as it may be, Twin Towers is a logical brand name, as it conjures
images of both a tremendous high and an enormous impact.

That did not make the marketing gimmick any more palatable, said Lt. Brian
Burke, a spokesman for the police.

"Those that are involved in trafficking in drugs represent the lowest dregs
of society," he said.

"That they would do this in the face of such a horrific act in hopes of
profiting greatly in the sale of narcotics shows the value they put on a
human life," he added.