JULY 3, 2000

THREE COUNTY INVESTIGATION SNARES FAR ROCKAWAY DRUG RING; 14 ARRESTED; DRUGS AND CASH SEIZED

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of 14 individuals involved in a three county conspiracy to sell cocaine. The gang, many of whom were related, operated out of a Far Rockaway apartment where they took telephone orders for drugs and delivered the product to their customers throughout the Rockaways, Averne and Nassau County.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendants are charged with criminal sales of controlled substances in the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd degrees, as well as conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. They face up to life in prison if convicted.

According to the criminal complaint, the defendants allegedly took over drug sales in the Rockaway neighborhoods where arrests in 1998 and 1999 had decimated drug organizations. The alleged ringleaders Christopher Darby, 29, Lamont R. Brown, 18,and Robert Brown, 23, all of 12-56 Central Avenue-5B, are brothers as well as partners in crime. They allegedly bought cocaine from various suppliers including one in the Bronx who was arrested after a search warrant led to the discovery of more than 2 pounds of cocaine concealed in a false panel in a piece of furniture. They allegedly operated out of their home, an apartment at 12-56 Central Avenue, accepting phone orders and making deliveries to their customers. The marketing scheme extended into Nassau County where Christopher Darby also worked as a bus driver and another seller, Anthony Garone, 51, of 69 2^nd Avenue East Rockaway, was a former Nassau County Police Detective. The enterprise grossed thousands of dollars a month.

District Attorney Brown said, "We have been targeting the drug dealers in this community for more than two years now. Each time we make arrests, it takes longer for the criminal element to regroup and begin selling drugs again. We are determined to outlast them and restore to the law abiding multitudes a community where they can live without fear."

The investigation was conducted by two teams of South East Queens Initiative Detectives from the New York City Police Department including Detective Jerome Kern and Sgt. William Devine, under the supervision of Lt. Waters.

ADAs Mary Lowenburg, Brian Stavrides, and Mark Katz, under the supervision of ADAs Wilbert J. LeMelle, Bureau Chief, NIB, and Gregory Pavlides, Deputy, NIB, and under the overall supervision of Peter A. Crusco, EADA Investigations, Michael Mansfield, DEADA Investigations, and ADA Linda Cantoni, Counsel to the Investigations Division, are in charge of the case.

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