NEW YORK – The indictment of 35 members of a drug ring operating out of East Harlem that sold large quantities of Phencyclidine (“PCP”) and other drugs, through street-level distributors in Manhattan was announced Wednesday by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., and New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The indictments follow a 15-month investigation led by the NYPD’s Narcotics Borough Manhattan North and the District Attorney’s Office. This investigation began in direct response to community complaints made to the NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office’s Crime Strategies Unit about drug activity in the neighborhood.

The defendants have been indicted on multiple charges of conspiracy, criminal sale of a controlled substance, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. The two leaders of the operation, brothers Lamont Moultrie, a/k/a “MO,” a/k/a “Big Bro,” 41, and Bernard Moultrie, a/k/a “B-HI,” a/k/a “Little Bro,” 39, are each additionally charged with Operating as a Major Trafficker under the New York State “Drug Kingpin” statute, a class A-I felony.

“One of the reasons why crime has plummeted by 70 percent and more in Harlem over the last two decades has been sustained attention to combating drug dealing and the inevitable violence associated with it”, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “Angel dust produces only victims, and the arrest and prosecution of its dealers helps protect the hard-fought gains in these neighborhoods.”

According to documents filed in court, between October 2010 and January 2012, the defendants were members of a drug trafficking organization that primarily sold PCP, along with cocaine and heroin, in the vicinity of 41 West 112th Street, 4-20 East 117th Street, and 1780 Madison Avenue in East Harlem. The defendants purchased substantial quantities of PCP in liquid form, sprayed the drug onto vegetable matter such as spearmint leaves, and packaged the processed PCP in small bags. Each bag of PCP was usually sold for $10, for a net profit estimated to be in excess of $1 million each year.