A large-scale bust landed 45 people – alleged members of two drug organizations operating in southeast Queens – in jail on drug, weapons and other charges.
The two organizations were allegedly being run by a set of the Bloods street gang known as the “South Side Bloods” and by James “Wall” Corley, an original member of the Queens Supreme Team, a violent narcotics gang that flourished during the height of New York City’s crack epidemic in the 1980s.
It is alleged that the two gangs grossed more than $15,000 per week by distributing narcotics to numerous street dealers who, in turn, sold the drugs to customers. In total, 45 people have been arrested, including 19 customers.
“This investigation resulted in dozens of arrests, including that of James ‘Wall’ Corley, one of the principal suppliers of cocaine throughout Queens South,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “Corley began his drug career as an associate of ‘the supreme team’ during the crack epidemic of the 1980s, and associated with the felons who sanctioned the execution of New York City Police Officer Edward Byrne in 1988. While Corley was not charged in the murder of Eddie Byrne, generations of police officers will take no small satisfaction in the fact that an associate of his killers has been brought to justice.”
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that, since February 2011, the NYPD’s Queens Gang Squad and his Narcotics Investigations Bureau have been watching two separate organizations allegedly supplying narcotics in southeast Queens.
As a result of traditional investigative means such as physical surveillance and search warrants, coupled with court-authorized electronic surveillance, authorities allegedly developed information that the first group, the Corley Crew, allegedly led by James Corley, supplied customers in the South Jamaica Houses, the Baisley Houses, Rochdale Village and other areas in Jamaica, while the second group, the South Side Bloods, supplied customers in Baisley Gardens and other parts.
In addition to the arrests, officers executed 14 court-authorized search warrants and allegedly seized approximately one-and-one-half kilograms of cocaine, over 50 decks of heroin, a quantity of marijuana, approximately $70,000 in alleged narcotic proceeds, numerous cell phones, four handguns and a 9mm Intratec submachine gun.
The defendants are variously charged criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal sale of marijuana.
Among those arrested was Corley, who was charged on May 10 with three narcotics sales and other related charges. In executing a search warrant at Corley’s residence in Rochdale Village, police allegedly recovered a quantity of cocaine, 10 vials of Lidocaine (commonly added to cocaine), 45 forged $5 bills and various narcotics paraphernalia.
