NEW YORK - Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau Wednesday announced the indictment of eight people on several counts of felony narcotics charges stemming from an investigation, known as “Operation Snoop,” into street level crack cocaine distribution in the vicinity of the Dyckman Housing Development, located in upper Manhattan. One of the eight individuals is separately charged as a cocaine supplier to the street level drug organization. 

The Dyckman Housing Development is a seven-building complex containing 2,500 residents in 1,167 apartments. It is bounded by Nagle Avenue, Dyckman Street, West 204th Street and Tenth Avenue. This area was the focus of the New York City Police Department and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office because it has been a persistent hub of drug-related violence and crime. 

The indictment was the culmination of a nine-month investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Firearms Trafficking Unit and the NYPD Manhattan North Narcotics Major Case Squad and the 34th Precinct Detective Squad. The investigation utilized undercover detectives and surveillance techniques to infiltrate a street level drug organization run by its boss and owner, defendant Lillian Rivera, who is also known as “Ills.”

The Rivera Organization operated primarily out of an apartment building located at 3736 Tenth Avenue, a building within the Dyckman Housing Development, but also utilized apartments in the Bronx to store, process and package narcotics.  The Rivera Organization sold drugs at the street or “retail” level making hand-to-hand sales to customers interested in narcotics for their personal use. Drug sales were consummated inside the lobby and stairwells of 3736 Tenth Avenue. Additional drug sales were completed in delivery service fashion, with buyers calling members of the drug organization and ordering drugs that were later delivered to the buyers in various locations in the vicinity of the Dyckman Housing Development.