Crime and Courts

Covering crime and court proceedings in the tri-state

DA: Drug Ring Used Boy, 8, As Lookout

Customers came from New Jersey, Long Island and Vermont to buy PCP from this ring.

By Shimon Prokupecz and Jonathan Dienst and Joe Valiquette • Published January 18, 2012 • Updated on February 28, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Prosecutors and police announced 35 arrests Wednesday in the bust of a major drug ring that operated in Harlem and used an 8-year-old boy as a lookout.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said the arrests were made after a 15-month investigation.

The two leaders, a pair of brothers, are accused of selling PCP to customers who lined up to buy the drugs. They received shipments through the mail through UPS and Fed-Ex, prosecutors said.

Vance said the ring drew customers from as far away as Vermont.

One of their buyers was a woman who purchased PCP and then died in an East Harlem fire on Sunday after she began smoking the drug and her clothes caught fire.

Authorities found $35,000 in cash and 2.5 gallons of PCP stashed in Hawaiian Punch bottles in a raid Wednesday.