MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A drug crew made itself at home at a defunct Central Harlem furniture store, hosting block parties and barbecues to hawk pot to its customers, prosecutors said Thursday.
The DA said 11 dealers who were based at Rally Furniture at 101 West 132nd St., near Lenox Avenue, also sold out of other businesses in the neighborhood.
During the year-long investigation, police and prosecutors said the shop, which was littered with tattered furniture that served merely as props, served as a "social club" for the suspects.
"They would basically hold block parties in front of the store until the early hours of the morning," Assistant District Attorney Jordan Arnold said at the arraignment of two of the defendants.
"They used that store as their base. They've been doing so for years," Arnold added.
The suspects even used the tables and chairs they were pretending to sell to accommodate the parties, where guests drank, smoked pot and played loud music late into the night, prosecutors said.
Arnold said the group "used low-level sales to vet their customers" before selling large amounts of marijuana to them. They also hid their stashes in discarded newspapers, neighbor's mailboxes and other empty food containers, the DA said.
One defendant, David Dawson, was arraigned on Wednesday wearing a "Weed: Breakfast of Champions" t-shirt.
Those charged included ringleader Frank McTaggart, 44, Donavan Lewis, 36, Larrington Haye, 39, Stafford Burke, 44, Peter Bowley, 46, Christopher Richards, 41, Cordero Bailey, 22, John Mosley, 32, Freddie Bobbitt, 52, and Rallyford Simpson, 53 and Dawson, 39.
They were all charged with conspiracy, a felony, and criminal sale of a controlled substance.
All but three — Bowley, Mosley and Bobbitt — were apprehended Thursday.
McTaggart was ordered held without bail because questions were raised about his immigration status at his arraignment Thursday. The alleged leader along with Lewis, Haye, Dawson and Simpson pleaded not guilty.
