The NYPD sting that culminated in the arrests of 28 accused drug dealers targeted two rival drug crews working out of a housing project near Lincoln Center. Officers raided the Amsterdam Houses at 6 a.m. yesterday in a sweep dubbed "Operation Opera House" and nabbed the suspects—three of whom are high school students.
According to the Daily News, "a healthy demand" allowed the separate drug cliques to sell cocaine, crack, heroin and marijuana inside the housing complex, which is located between 61st and 65th streets, and Amsterdam and West End avenues. Before the bust, undercover officers made nearly 70 drug purchases and witnessed dealers teaching youngsters about the trade.
"During some of the undercover operations, the dealers would be instructing the high school students how to take money, how to hold money how to hold the crack vials so they wouldn't drop them, so they were actually conducting a how-to course during the course of their drug negotiations so that was one aspect that was very troubling to us," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan told NY1. Alleged ringleader Shahee Tate, 20, escaped the initial bust, but police arrested him later in the day when he tried to hail a cab in East Harlem. Several other suspects remain on the run.
