Authorities today arrested 23 people accused of selling crack cocaine out of the Frederick Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side. The arrests came after a one-year investigation of complaints of drug dealing, shootings, and robberies. According to a release, defendant Steven Smith was arrested in his apartment on May 17 with his five month-old baby sitting on a bed nearby. Smith allegedly hesitated when asked to show his hands, eventually revealing a .45 caliber handgun wedged into the mattress where he was kneeling.
In addition to 23 bags of crack, marijuana, and the handgun, police found Smith's girlfriend and her 9-year-old son in the apartment. Smith faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child as well as drug and weapons charges.
During the one-year operation, undercover officers purchased crack 40 times from the 23 defendants for a total of $2,255 in sales.
