Raid breaks up village drug ring

Seven residents of Old Mill Court were among 16 suspected members of a Rockville Centre-based crack cocaine distribution ring arrested by village police and federal agents in a pre-dawn raid on June 1. Detectives said that a narcotics trade has operated out of the Housing Authority complex on North Centre Avenue. Police also said that four of the accused have ties to the Bloods, a violent street gang.

Officers made simultaneous raids in Baldwin, Deer Park, Hempstead, Lakeview and Roosevelt, according to Rockville Centre Police Commissioner Charles Gennario, who also told the Herald that village police officers, along with FBI agents and New York City detectives, executed a search-and-arrest warrant in Brooklyn on May 31, where they took one man into custody. Another suspect whom police had been looking for turned himself in to a Rockville Centre officer on

June 2.

The village residents who were arrested included alleged Bloods members Jamel Richardson-Banks, 28; Neville Hunter, 30; Rasharid Agee, 34; and an “associate” of the gang, Haywood Bruce, 46. The others from Old Mill Court were Chanell Duncan, 32; Eddie Richardson, 47; and Michael Wright, 49.

A village spokesman said that seven search teams comprising 175 law enforcement personnel with dogs converged on Old Mill Court at 5 a.m., and the raid lasted for two and a half hours. According to the spokesman, 16 village officers were involved in the bust, and Nassau County Police Department canine units assisted in the search for narcotics afterward. Officers reportedly discovered cocaine, heroin, prescription pills and ammunition in the targeted apartments.

According to Gennario, the arrests were the culmination of a 14-month investigation initiated by village police and the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, which was eventually joined by the assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the NCPD Homicide Squad. Court-ordered wiretaps of thousands of phone calls over four months revealed the sale and purchase of the narcotics, Gennario said.

Fifteen of the defendants, who range in age from 25 to 58 and include three women, were arraigned on June 1 at the federal courthouse in Central Islip. They were each charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and U.S. Magistrate E. Thomas Boyle ordered them held without bail. If convicted, they face 10 years to life in prison. The 16th suspect, who was not included in the federal warrant but was nabbed in the Rockville Centre raid, was arrested on state charges of narcotics possession.

“These arrests will have a profound impact on the quality of life in our village and the surrounding communities,” said Gennario. “I want to thank the FBI, the assistant U.S. attorney’s office and Nassau County police for their assistance in this investigation.

“We’re going to be vigilant in ensuring that drug abuse is eradicated from the village,” he added.

Residents of Old Mill Court said they felt both fear and relief. A woman who lives a few doors down from one of the raided apartment units — 28 Mill Court — and declined to be identified told the Herald, “It was a scary site. There were big dogs brought in.”

Another resident, who lives at 3 Mill Court and also asked not to be identified, said, “I was inside when it all happened. I heard [from neighbors] that it sounded pretty serious, and there was a lot of crazy activity going on.”

“Our investigation was the result of the recognition of a problem and the enactment of a plan to resolve that problem,” Lt. James Vafeades, the Rockville Centre police officer who was in charge of the village’s part of the operation, said in a written statement. “The success of the case was due to the hard work and tireless efforts of the Rockville Centre Police Anti-Crime Unit along with our partnership with the F.B.I. Long Island Gang Task Force.”

Village Administrator Frank Quigley also thanked the U.S. attorney and the FBI, as well as village police, for devoting so many resources to the investigation. “One person selling drugs is a threat to the entire society,” Quigley said. But he noted that although the arrests are important, they represent “a very small percentage of the total number of people who live in the neighborhood.”

John Duenges, director of the village Housing Authority, and Gary Kondor, chairman of its board of directors, declined to comment on the arrests, citing an ongoing investigation.

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