Crack Ring That Used Harlem Street As Marketplace Busted: NYPD

HARLEM, NY – A crack cocaine and heroin-dealing ring that terrorized a Harlem block has been smashed by police who arrested six people in raids Friday, officials said.

The men are accused of using a stretch of West 123rd Street between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard as their marketplace, selling dozens of bags of drugs with their peak time for dealing being mid-afternoon.

The area is within three blocks of five schools, prosecutors said.

Starting in June 2017, an undercover cop bought drugs at least 50 times from the dealers who worked together, according to Bridget Brennan, the city's Special Narcotics Prosecutor, and NYPD Commission James O'Neill.

"The defendants allegedly congregated in groups to sell narcotics on the block and impeded the ability of passersby, including school children, to safely use the sidewalks," a spokeswoman for Brennan said.

The NYPD's Manhattan North Narcotics squad raided three apartments during the arrests. In one, they found two handguns under a mattress, Brennan's office said.

Jonathan Alvarez, Nana Poku, Kerry Rainey, Gary Reid, Darren Squire and Emmanuel Suce all face charges of criminal sale of a controlled substance.

“I hope these arrests give relief to the beleaguered residents of West 123rd Street," said Brennan.

"School children and people on their way home from a long day at work had to push past dealers clogging sidewalks, making them feel uneasy in their own neighborhood."