Pubdate: Sat, 18 May 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Sean Gardiner

124 ARRESTED IN PARAPHERNALIA SELLING STING

A citywide undercover initiative that lasted several weeks and involved 
hundreds of police officers netted 124 arrests, allegedly for peddling of 
drug paraphernalia, and could result in the closing of 58 newspaper stands, 
bodegas and other businesses snared in the sting, police said.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, surrounded Friday by dozens of bags of 
seized drug paraphernalia at a news conference, said officers used 58 
search warrants during a four-hour period Thursday morning as "part of our 
renewed assault on quality-of-life crimes in all five boroughs."

The initiative was called "Operation CROP," which stands for Coordinated 
Response to Outlaw Paraphernalia.

"Over the last few weeks, undercover officers bought drug paraphernalia 
from dealers across the city," Kelly said. "They bought it from newspaper 
stands, from cigarette shops, from Lotto vendors, every place that sells 
illegal drug paraphernalia under the counter.

"Then, in a single day, the Narcotics Division swept in and executed search 
warrants in all five boroughs," he said. "They seized crack pipes, crack 
stems, bongs, scales, filters, Ziploc bags, heat sealers and rubber stamps 
- - all items used in the narcotics trade."

Officers also seized $99,000 in cash, Kelly said.

In a borough-by-borough breakdown, Kelly said officers executed 22 search 
warrants in Brooklyn, with 49 arrests; 19 search warrants in Manhattan, 
with 38 arrests; nine search warrants in Queens, with 19 arrests; six 
search warrants in the Bronx, with 13 arrests; and two search warrants in 
Staten Island, with five arrests.

All of those arrested were charged with the misdemeanor crime of selling 
drug paraphernalia. The next step of the initiative, Kelly said, would be 
to begin civil proceedings in an attempt to close the newsstands, bodegas 
and other places where the paraphernalia was sold.
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