A drug gang terrorized East Harlem and raked in more than $1 million a year by peddling PCP, crack and heroin, officials said today.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced the takedown of 35 gang members this afternoon — including the two brothers who led the lucrative business — at a 1 Police Plaza press conference.
Lamont “Big Bro” Moultrie, 41, and Bernard “Little Bro” Moultrie, 39, are accused of controlling an illegal business that drew in customers from New Jersey and Connecticut.
They face drug sale and possession charges under the state’s “Drug Kingpin” statute, a law passed in 2009 that can lock major drug dealers away for 25-to-life.
Cops hit the street at 5 a.m. today, rounding up street-level dealers and bosses who allegedly ran roughshod with a sophisticated operation that stretched from East 112th to 117th streets, between Lenox and Madison avenues.
A source said the gang may also be connected to a fire on Sunday that killed Hilda Santiago, a 38-year-old woman who had ducked into a E. 117th Street building with her niece to escape the cold and do drugs.
“This group was firmly entrenched for a long time,” a source said. “They were also dealing heroin and crack.”
The arrests follow a 15-month investigation into Manhattan’s violence hotspots that originated with complaints from locals who were sick of the junkies and dealers in their midst.
“Residents in this neighborhood where this drug ring operated told us that they walked their hallways and streets in fear as their community was overrun every day with people buying and selling drugs,” Vance said.
Relying on a network of “lieutenants” and “managers,” the gang stashed drugs in apartments and moved most of the angel dust out of a courtyard at E. 117th St. and Madison Ave.
“They had multiple buildings,” a source said of the gang. “They had lookouts who would tip off the dealers when the cops came around.”
At one of the locations raided early today, cops recovered a large stash of angel dust from gallon containers, a source said.
“PCP usually comes in gallon containers and can be broken down into Snapple bottles,” the source said. “You can also dip a cigarette into it and smoke it.”