Brothers Anthony, left, and Harvey Christian are taken into custody in connection with a murder on May, 26, 1995. The two men were acquitted in that case on 1997.Today, federal authorities said they’ve put the infamous Christian brothers’ reign to an end with a sweeping bust that netted nine suspects.
Brothers Anthony (Nitty) and Harvey (Black) Christian — who in the 1990s beat a murder and attempted murder rap — have been indicted alongside seven other men and accused of running a cocaine distribution conspiracy. A tenth suspect remains at large.
All face the prospect of ten years to life in federal prison.
The Christian brothers allegedly held court in the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton since the 1990s, overseeing an operation that federal authorities have linked to at least three murders.
The feds describe another suspect, Robert (Boy Boy) Fields, as a "close criminal associate" of Jermaine (Big Den) Dickerson, a prominent drug dealer and senior Bloods member, who was shot dead in November 2009.
The investigation, which involved federal and local authorities, took years to develop, and included hundreds of hours of wiretapped cell phone conversations, undercover drug buys, and search warrants that turned up guns, bulletproof vests, a kilogram of cocaine, crack, marijuana, a scale and "other distribution paraphernalia," according to federal court papers.
"For nearly two decades, the defendants allegedly controlled the illegal drug trade in Park Hill, holding the community hostage with their brutality and ruthlessness," said Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. "Over the years, we have put dozens of their alleged colleagues in prison. But now, thanks to a collaborative effort with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, the NYPD, and the FBI, we have completely dismantled this charged criminal dynasty."
Seven of the nine men arrested are in their thirties or early 40s, including Anthony and Harvey Christian, who are 37 and 39 years old, respectively. Fields is 34.
"Thirty-nine years old is ancient for a gangster... it’s a long time to survive," said one law enforcement source, since the drug trade often means death at a young age by gunfire or long prison sentences.
"The charges and arrests announced today have disrupted a prolific drug trafficking crew that has operated for years and victimized an entire housing complex in Staten Island," said Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
All nine defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn today. They were all ordered remanded into federal custody until their next court date on June 24.
The other suspects are identified as:
-- Paul Ford, 42, also known as "Uncles," "Unks," "Dred" and "Ninja," who in the 1990s, authorities say, joined the Christian brothers to control the drug trade in Park Hill, and has been linked, along with the brothers, to two back-to-back slayings in the summer of 1999.
-- Anthony (N-O) Britt, 39, a career violent felon who the feds say was caught on wiretaps talking about firing a gun and robbing narcotics traffickers.
-- Jamelle (B-Realz) Harper, 29, also a career felon who has done time in state prison for drug dealing.
-- Jason (Q) Quinn, 37, who had a loaded 9 mm firearm, crack and paraphernalia on him at the time of his arrest, the feds allege.
-- Jaime (Mo-Mo) Booker, 19, who managed one of the organization’s "work phones," lives with the brothers and was caught up in a February 2010 raid that uncovered two bullet-proof vests, cocaine and marijuana, federal authorities allege.
-- Jarh Wreh, 37, who the feds say has several weapons and drug arrests on his record, but no convictions.
"In this case, the Christian brothers didn’t run a winery," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly quipped in a written statement.
But no one who’s lived in the Park Hill Apartments would mistake the gang’s alleged brutal rule with the similarly-named Christian Brothers winery in Napa Valley — Anthony and Harvey Christian have been making crime headlines since at least 1995, when they were charged with the murder of John Kennedy III and the attempted murder of Carlos Serrano. A third man, Fred Marks, was also charged.
Serrano fingered all three men, and said Anthony Christian cut down Kennedy with a shotgun, but defense attorneys caught him in several lies, and a woman who said the younger Christian admitted the shooting to her, was an admitted substance abuser.
All three were acquitted by a jury in 1997.
Federal court papers lay out ties to two more murders in 1999, though none of the defendants have yet been charged in those slayings.
As federal prosecutors tell it, Ford asked his half-brother, Brian Humphreys, to come to Staten Island and provide the gang "extra muscle." Humphreys teamed up with another man, Constantine McLaughlin.
At a meeting that summer, Ford and the Christian brothers told Humphreys that they were having problems with another group of Bloods, and wanted that group’s leader — Corey (Shank Bank) Brooker, and an associate, Jerome Estella, 17, dead.
The two caught Estella on Bowen Street on June 19, 1999, not far from where the Christian brothers lived, and Humphreys gunned him down with a 9 mm he had gotten from Anthony Christian that day, while McLaughlin acted as lookout from their car.
Humphreys pleaded guilty in 2002, and testified against McLaughlin, who was convicted in 2005. Federal prosecutors’ accounting of the shooting comes from testimony in the case against McLaughlin.
Brooker was shot dead in Stapleton four days after Estella, on June 22, 1999. So far, no one has been charged with his murder.
After their acquittal in 1997, Anthony and Harvey Christian, as well as a third brother, James, remained a major force in the borough’s illegal drug trade, law enforcement officials said.
In 2004, one law enforcement source dubbed the family a "scourge on the (Staten) Island community," and authorities at the time said they had controlled most of the drug action in Park Hill, randomly extracting a "tax" from local drug dealers, and beating and robbing those who didn’t pay it.
Advance records also show Anthony Christian has two prior assault-related convictions, in March 1997 and September 1998. He received jail time of a year or less under each plea deal. He was also the victim of a 2003 shooting.
The Christian brothers’ attorneys could not be reached for comment today.
No comments:
Post a Comment