Eighteen major suppliers based on a Broadway strip known as “Cocaine City” and ten others were indicted in December. The defendants supplied high purity cocaine and heroin to large-scale dealers in New York and in Schenectady, Syracuse, Saratoga and Albany. They also supplied drugs to dealers from Ohio, Virginia, the Carolinas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The investigation targeted Broadway from 140th to 144th Streets and identified main dealers and business locations associated with drug trafficking. Street sales ranged from 100 to 200 grams of cocaine costing up to $5,000, to kilograms of cocaine priced at $25,000 per kilo. Kilograms of heroin were also sold for up to $80,000. Sellers delivered narcotics to hundreds of weekly buyers along the strip. Major dealers netted approximately $12,000 a week and street sellers averaged $5,000 to $8,000 weekly. Storefronts and restaurants along Broadway were used to conduct narcotics sales. This investigation helped launch a related investigation that identified members of a robbery ring in the targeted area.
