April 6, 1999

25 INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED IN OPERATION OF MULTIMILLION DOLLAR DRUG DISTRIBUTION AND SALES NETWORK IN CITY HOUSING DEVELOPMENT; DRUGS, GUNS AND OTHER CONTRABAND SEIZED

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by the New York City Police Department's Chief of Organized Crime Control Martin O'Boyle, its Chief of Housing Joseph P. Dunne and Assistant Chief Charles Kammerdener, Commanding Officer of the Department's Narcotics Division, announced today the arrest of the leaders, supervisors and members of a highly organized drug gang that is alleged to have operated a $3 million a year crack and heroin distribution and sales network inside the South Jamaica Housing Development.

Approximately 25 individuals have been taken into custody -- others are being sought -- and seven search warrants have been executed in a ten-month undercover investigation into drug trafficking in the public housing development -- known as the 40's Project -- conducted by the Queens District Attorney's Office's Narcotics Investigation Bureau and the NYPD's Queens Narcotics District.

District Attorney Brown said, "The South Jamaica Housing Development consists of 27 five to seven story brick buildings and is home to over 2,500 people. It is among the older public housing developments in New York City. Its first phase was completed in 1940. Unfortunately, for many years the development has been plagued by pervasive drug trafficking, much of which was conducted indoors and was deeply entrenched and organized making it extremely difficult to infiltrate.

"These arrests clearly underscore law enforcement's collective commitment to ridding the streets of illegal drug gang activity," said New York City Police Comissioner Howard Safir. "We have successfully dismantled the "Chomp Crew", an entrenched gang that operated in the South Jamaica Housing Development. Some of the "Chomp Crew" have ties to the former gang "Round Table" whose members were responsible for the murder of Police Officer Edward Byrne in 1988. These illegal activities threaten to erode the safety of all New Yorkers and will not be tolerated. Law enforcement agencies on all levels will continue their aggressive efforts in working together to achieve a secure and safe environment."

"Early last summer," the District Attorney said, "police officers of the NYPD's Southeast Queens Initiative were able to make a number of undercover narcotics buys and to conduct extensive physical surveillance which enabled our office's Narcotics Investigations Bureau to obtain court authorization to conduct electronic eavesdropping which revealed, according to the charges, that drug dealing throughout the development was being conducted by the "Chomp Crew" under the leadership of Andre White aka "Chomp", 32, of 130-35 144th Street, Jamaica, and Jeffrey Copeland aka "Jazzy",34, of 134-29 166 Place, Jamaica. They allegedly purchased narcotics from the defendant Francisco Perez aka "Apachito", 35, of 40 Richman Plaza, the Bronx, and distributed the drugs through defendants Brian Grant aka "B-Lover",35, of 111-28 145th Street, Jamaica, Christopher Whitney aka "JuJu",29, of 106-36 121st Avenue, Jamaica and Mark Robinson aka "Fly",33, of 109-10 159th Street, Jamaica, who acted as supervisors and parceled out varying amounts of the drugs to workers assigned to particular buildings within the development.

During the course of the investigation undercover officers are alleged to have made some 60 purchases of crack cocaine and heroin from members of the gang -- many of which were made in close proximity to Public School 40 which adjoins the development.

District Attorney Brown said that at the time of the arrests search warrants were executed at the residences of the defendants Francisco Perez, Stacey Graham and Andre White and at the following locations in the development: 116-32 169th Street, second floor, Jamaica, Queens; 109-30 160th Street, Apartment 5G, Jamaica, Queens; 109-30 160th Street, Apartment 4B, Jamaica, Queens; and 161-30 128th Avenue, Jamaica, Queens.

Detectives seized 200 vials of crack cocaine, 6 ounces of unpackaged crack cocaine, 4 ounces of heroin and four 9mm semi automatic handguns. In addition, $50,000 in cash was seized this morning from a safe deposit box maintained by the gang.

The defendants are each charged with Conspiracy in the Second Degree and various counts of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The investigation and arrests were carried out by detectives of the South Queens Narcotics District which is under the command of Deputy Inspector Denis McCarthy. The investigation was conducted by Sgt. Anthony Tardalo, Det. Alan Schwartz and Police Officers William Mincher and Peter Auerbach under the supervision of Lt. Michael O'Neill.

Assistant District Attorneys Gregory C. Pavlides, Lynne Kurtz-Citrin and Frank Perrone of the District Attorney's Narcotics Investigations Bureau, which is under the supervision of Bureau Chief Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Bureau Chief Wilbert LeMelle and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Robert D. Alexander are in charge of the prosecution.

District Attorney Brown expressed his appreciation to the New York City Housing Authority for their cooperation and assistance in the investigation.

It should be noted that an arrest is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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