45 busted in Queens gang takedown

[CHACHO]

Authorities have busted 45 alleged gang members, including an accused drug dealer linked to a notorious Queens crew, sources said Thursday.

James (Wall) Corley, 51, is “one of the biggest coke dealers who supplies to smaller dealers out there,” one source said.

“He is a feared guy.”

Corley came of age during the crack era of the late 1980s and was an associate of the Supreme Team, a gang that controlled the Baisley Park Houses, and street corners along Sutphin Blvd., earning about $10 million a year.

The Supreme Team was run by Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff, who along with Lorenzo Fat Cat Nichols and Howard (Pappy) Mason, dominated the crack trade in South Jamaica, St. Albans and Hollis.

Mason was convicted of ordering the murder of rookie cop Edward Byrne, who was executed while guarding the home of a key witness in a drug case.

Mason is now serving life in prison.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown will discuss details of this week’s gang takedown at an afternoon news conference.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/4 ... z1v9rd0pSs

[Uptown Boy]

was this today? they just did a raid on the mack ballers on webster this morning too. since webster and jamaica queens is the 2 biggest mack baller hoods in the city, wonder if its connected. we gonna see on the news anyway.

[SwaGGMoney]

I thought Wall got knocked during the swept in 1995...wow that's crazy

[CHACHO]

TODAY OR YESTERDAY. ARE THESE NIGGAS BLOOD OR CRIP AFFILIATED OR INDEPENDENT?

[SwaGGMoney]

TODAY OR YESTERDAY. ARE THESE NIGGAS BLOOD OR CRIP AFFILIATED OR INDEPENDENT?

If it's in Baisely or 40, they most likely bloods....I hope it ain't the MB's

[muthafuckin]

damn, that nigga preme still got niggas makin money. 10M a year.

[ParadiseGz]

MACK BALLA H79D IS WESTSIDE MERRICK AND THEY IN 40PS..I HOPE IT AINT THE MACKS IMA BOUT TO MAKE A FEW CALLS SM79H

[CHACHO]

Corley, 51, was a key figure in infamous the “Supreme Team” gang, which was a major player in the crack epidemic that tore apart New York in the 1980s. Remaining members of that gang have morphed into today’s Jamaica-based Southside Bloods, cops said.

Cops seized 1.5 kilos of cocaine, more than 50 decks of heroin, marijuana, $70,000 cash, four handguns and an Intratec 9mm sub-machine gun.They also seized three machines, generally found in auto shops to bend metal.”Pressers” expel liquid from drugs so they can be packaged into easy-to-transport bricks.”

[NYSTATEofMiND143]

http://news.yahoo.com/notorious-1980s-d ... nM-;_ylv=3



NEW YORK (AP) — A notorious drug dealer who got his start during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and was so good at hiding his whereabouts that he was known as "the ghost" has been arrested along with dozens of others on new charges, police and prosecutors said Thursday.

James Corley, 51, was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance and other drug charges after a 15-month undercover investigation that used wiretaps and surveillance, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Forty-four other people were also charged with drug crimes in the dismantling of Corley's operation, known as the Supreme Team, and another drug gang, authorities said.

Corley supplied cocaine to a second gang called the South Side Bloods, and low-level dealers grossed about $15,000 a week in drug sales, Kelly said. Burned by a wiretap before, Corley used at least eight different phones, authorities said.

"He had an uncanny ability to keep his associates in the dark. No one knew where he lived, what phone number he used, what car he drove," Kelly said.

A call to Corley's lawyer wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

The case was pieced together by Detective David Leonardi, who said the dealers used a language called the "5 percenter" where every number and letter had its own word and members decoded messages about drug orders. The wiretaps also netted information on illegal guns and a possible killing in South Carolina.

Corley came of age during the crack era of the late 1980s and was an associate of the Supreme Team, which controlled housing projects and corners in Queens, the ground zero of the crack epidemic in New York. Crime was rampant; in 1990, the number of murders hit an all-time high of 2,245.

The Supreme Team was run by legendary gang leader Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, who reputedly funneled drug money into rap music label Murder Inc. He's now serving life without parole for a pair of murders after a 2007 conviction.

It was a brutal drug gang that came out of the same Queens streets where platinum rappers 50 Cent and Ja Rule emerged years later. At its peak, the Supreme Team's network of dealers was making $200,000 a day, authorities said.

After McGriff did jail time on a drug conviction, he was released in 1997 and aligned himself with neighborhood friend and music mogul Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo. The one-time street thugs produced one film: "Crime Partners," a straight-to-video affair that featured Ja Rule, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T.

The Supreme Team was responsible for the shooting of NYPD Officer Edward Byrne in 1988, authorities said, but Corley wasn't charged in that killing. He was jailed once in the 1980s on drug charges, and was later convicted of manslaughter for beating to death a man he believed to be a police informant, and served more than three years, police said.

New York Police Department Capt. James Ryan said the takedown this week finally signaled the end of the remnants of the team that had terrorized Queens for decades.

"We feel it's pretty much dismantled now with Corley being taken out of the picture," he said. "It remains to be seen, we're always vigilant and we think this is the end of them."

[YBz^NYC]

SUPREME TEAM

[ernoneFOLKKS]

:rip: SUPREME TEAM