FBI raids on LI, Queens crack down on drug dealers
FBI agents staged raids Thursday on six locations in Suffolk, Nassau and Queens as part of a crackdown on drug dealers believed to be supplying street gangs on Long Island, according to court documents and sources.
Four people were arrested, including one who was "the leader of a large-scale narcotics" operation on Long Island, according to court papers.
The arrests were the first phase in a long-term operation aimed at breaking up gangs, such as the Bloods and the Crips, by eventually charging members with drug offenses that carry long-term prison sentences, the sources said.
In an attempt to avoid detection when talking on a telephone, the suspects used a code that substituted words for numbers, according to court papers filed by FBI agent David Biddiscombe.
The code was developed by the Five-Percenters, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam, and was based on a belief in the divine relationship between numbers and words in the Koran and other religious books, Biddiscombe said. Those arrested did not belong to either group, the agent said.
In the code, the number three, for example, stood for the word "understanding" and the number six for "equality." So when the suspects said "understanding" and "equality" together, they were saying a kilo of cocaine cost $36,000, Biddiscombe said.
The four arrested included Leonard Tyson, 38, of West Babylon, described as the head of a narcotics organization; Tyson's brother, James Tyson, 24, of Deer Park; Michael White, 31, of Jamaica; and Joseph Fisher, 35, of Roosevelt.
Two of the raids, seeking information on the extent of the drug operation, were carried out in Copiague; the others in Deer Park, Jamaica, Roosevelt, and West Babylon, according to court papers.
The four all pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine before U.S. Magistrate William Wall in Central Islip. Wall held the four without bail.
They face at least 10 years in prison.
comments