CLINTON HILL — Police have arrested seven people in a string of narcotics sales that took place near several Clinton Hill schools and religious institutions.
Undercover officers busted the suspects for selling crack cocaine, heroin, Klonopin, marijuana and Xanax in the area between Gates and Atlantic avenues and Classon and Clinton avenues starting last September, according to the district attorney’s office.
Several of the transactions also took place in Bedford-Stuyvesant, near Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue.
“These defendants have been charged for allegedly dealing crack-cocaine, heroin and other drugs in broad daylight and near schools and houses of worship in total disregard for the children and people who attend them,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement. “We did this investigation and made these arrests because we're determined to rid our communities of the scourge of drug dealing."
Over the course of the investigation, undercover officers made 48 purchases of the drugs, which were branded with several street names like “Red Dragon,” “Death Strike” and “Jack Daniels,” prosecutors said.
In one transaction, an undercover officer purchased 699 baggies of heroin at $10 apiece, the DA said.
The transactions happened either in public or through drive-up delivery, where the dealers delivered the narcotics to buyers on request, as early as 7:45 a.m. and into the late evening, according to the DA.
Prosecutors said the majority of the purchases were made within 1,000 feet of schools, including P.S. 11 on Waverly Avenue, M.S. 35 on MacDonough Street, and Leadership Preparatory Charter School on Macon Street.
Several purchases were made near a senior center, residences and several small businesses, prosecutors said.
Three of the transactions took place directly in front of or a few steps away from religious institutions, prosecutors said.
And a number of the transactions happened inside an abandoned residential building at 488 Waverly Ave. that was later seized by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Prosecutors said they charged the following suspects with criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds, second- and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance:
► Eben Barnes (aka Whispers), 26.
► Keith Harding (aka Murray), 37.
► Willie Moore (aka Nick), 58.
► Maurice Wright (aka Black Hat), 36.
► Shane Lyons (aka Rock), 44.
► Deyshaun Wigfall (aka Day Day), 20.
► Omar Abdelkader (aka Omar), 26.
The suspects are scheduled to appear in court over the next few months. Attorney information was not immediately available for each suspect.
