Dealers ‘in’ the news
Police arrested two men in the early hours of Thurs., Jan. 20, and charged them with running a 24-hour cocaine and marijuana business catering to New York University students, patrons of East Village and Lower East Side bars and Tribeca residents.
The arrests were the result of a three-month Police Department investigation and sting operation that was uncovered when a court employee told police he found business cards offering coke and pot for sale that were tucked in the pages of The Village Voice in a box in front of an N.Y.U. dorm on Third Ave. at E. 10th St. The drug-pushing cards had also been shoved under the apartment doors of Independence Plaza in Tribeca, according to the complaint.
The defendants, Thomas Zenon, 49, and Miguel Guzman, 43, were arraigned on Fri., Jan. 21, and were being held in lieu of $1 million bond or $750,000 cash bail, according to the office of Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.
Undercover police had made 12 buys from Zenon and Guzman between Oct. 19 and Jan. 20, including two $1,110 buys of more than a half-ounce of cocaine, according to the complaint. Both suspects had previously served time for federal drug convictions, according to sources. Guzman, identified as a former Ohio State football player in a Daily News item, was carrying 16 grams of cocaine, more that $1,600 and four cell phones when he was arrested. Zenon had more than $600 on him and a stash of 20 bags of marijuana inside a coffee thermos in his car when he was arrested, the complaint says.
One N.Y.U. student told the Daily News that one of the suspects offered him cocaine outside the 10th St. dorm and handed him a card with a cell phone number and the words, “Blow your Mind.”
Burglary-series arrest
Police on Thurs., Jan. 6, arrested a suspect in connection with a series of 13 Lower East Side and Chinatown burglaries and home invasions between Oct. 12 and Nov. 15. But the suspect, Irving Walker, 31, who admitted to three of the burglaries, was not the Irving Walker, 41, whom police thought they were looking for in November.
The innocent suspect, whose name and former Bronx address were included in the N.Y.P.D. call for help issued to the media, had moved away a decade ago and was in a doctor’s office in Virginia Beach, Va., during one of the incidents. Although he received a letter from a detective that he was no longer a suspect, he said he is afraid to visit his old Bronx neighborhood, where residents might not know that he is cleared in the case.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney said the Irving Walker who was arrested Jan. 6 has admitted being involved in three of the robberies with another suspect, Kenneth Harden-Smith. Harden-Smith, arrested earlier, is charged with committing all 13 burglaries on Madison, Catherine, Eldridge, Forsyth, Monroe and Henry Sts. and East Broadway during the four-week period last autumn.
Steal a flashlight!
Two burglars who entered a ground-floor apartment on E. Seventh St. near Avenue A around 11:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 5, accidentally set fire to the place with a lighter that they were using as a flashlight, police said. Firefighters who responded to the blaze, which was confined to the apartment, had the fire under control in a half-hour. Two firefighters sustained minor injuries. The images of the burglars, who made off with two laptop computers and jewelry, were recorded on a surveillance tape.
Arrest in shooting
On Tues., Jan. 18, detectives arrested Daniel Claudio, 31, a resident of 225 E. Second St., and charged him with attempted murder and first-degree assault in a shooting in front of the location six days earlier. Police had responded to the location at 9 a.m. on Jan. 12, where the victim was found wounded with a gunshot to the abdomen. The victim, 33, was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The shooter and victim are reportedly cousins.
Roofer fatal fall
Police found a man lying on the ground unconscious next to Gouverneur Hospital at 227 Madison St. across from the Alfred E. Smith Houses around 11:26 p.m. Wed., Jan. 19. An Emergency Medical Service team declared Richard Smith, 46, dead at the scene. He was working for a roofing contractor at the hospital and apparently fell to his death. There was no criminality involved in the incident, police said.
Police assaulted
Police who were arresting Louis Navarro, 28, of the Bronx in front of 179 W. Fourth St. between Barrow and Jones Sts. at around 12:37 a.m. Thurs., Jan. 20, had a hard time subduing the angry defendant. The 6-foot-1-inch, 220-pound suspect punched the arresting officer several times and resisted handcuffing, police said.
Around 4:40 a.m. Mon., Jan. 17, a woman threw an unidentified missile at a passing police car at the corner of Bleecker and Sullivan Sts. and then threw several punches at the two officers who got out to arrest her. She then fled to a deli, where she grabbed a bottle of beer and tried to hit an officer who chased her in the face with it. He blocked the blow with his arm. During the arrest the suspect flailed her arms to resist being handcuffed. Joslin Mota, 24, of the Bronx, was charged with assaulting a police officer, larceny and resisting arrest.
Sway glass bash
A man visiting from Peoria, Ill., was in Sway, the bar at 305 Spring St. between Greenwich and Hudson Sts., during the early hours of Sun., Jan. 23, when a woman hit him in the face with a drinking glass, police said. The woman, Casey Tatum, 24, was arrested and charged with assault.
Marc Jacobs lifters
A man and a woman entered the Marc Jacobs boutique at 163 Mercer St. around 2 p.m. Fri., Jan. 21, and walked around for a while until the man grabbed a handbag valued at $1,295 from a mannequin and passed it to the woman, who put it in her bag. The couple then left, undetected by the electronic anti-theft system, although the store’s security camera recorded them on tape.
Cuts out with iPod
A man who got on an E train at Roosevelt Ave. in Queens at 4:30 a.m. Sat., Jan. 15, fell asleep, missed his stop and woke up at Canal St. to discover that his right front pocket had been cut and his iPod stolen. The victim didn’t report the theft to police until he was notified that a suspect carrying his iPod had been arrested at Stillwell Ave. in Brooklyn.
Albert Amateau
