The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-07
Practically Control Illicit
Trade Throughout City,
Police Assert.
ARREST BARES METHOD
Street statesmen Deal Only
With Poorer Addicts,
Using Signals.
PROFIT IS 1000 PER CENT.
600 Customers at 81 Each
Handled by One Prisoner,
Court Is Informed.
PROFIT is 1000 PER CENT

DIR. Carleton Simon, special deputy fo-
cotic Commissioner In charge Of the Mar
cotic SQUAD. announced yesterday that
an investigation he has just completed
has convinced him that a ring, composed
Of dive keepers who We're put out Of BUSH
ness by tho coming of prohibition. is
practically in control of the Illicit drug
trade in this city.
DR.. Simon believes that a few indie
pendent dealers still are selling cocaine,
heroin, murphine and other drugs to line
of customers who are in comparatively
easy way Of life, but he believes that all
the abject users of drugs in the poorer
sections of the city are dependent on
one gang of men who have been oper-
ating as q unit for more than year
and have their statesmen on the streets
every day.
DR.. Simon declared yesterday that the
ring has divided the city into twelve
zones and has so perfected its ma
chinery of distribution that to catch one
Of its men at work is a feat OF which
any detective may be proud. ,Neverthc-
less. within the last two weeks sever al
important arrests have been made and
a large amount of narcotic drugs has
been seized.
DR.. Simons squad has been working
IN cooperation with Federal agents who
have been sent to New York specially
to run down the members of the drug
ring, and yesterday as one result of their
joint work one Charles Phillips. more
Familiarity and widely known as "Chuck'
Phillips. was arraigned before United
states Commissioner Hitchcock and held
in $4,000 bail.
Tell Court of Methods.
He was arrested by Detective Massor
OF DR.. Simons squad and Federal Agent
McCarver at Forty street and
Broadway. and was held after they had
explained the method by which the men
who now control the Illicit drug trade
here distribute their wares to their VIC
tins. According to the police. Phillips
had a list Of thigh class clientele" OF
drug buyers. several of them actors and
actresses
The detectives told Commissioner
Hitchcock that no drug addict ever pays
on the spot for the drug which he buys
In the streets. Under the existing sys-
tenn he pays his money to one man. who
tells him OF certain sign he is to give,
and then walks half dozen blocks to an
appointed place, where he gives the sign
and stands still. Presently several men
come up behind him and one OF them
SLIPS quill of whatever drug he wants
into his pocket. This process Is inva-
riable and makes evidence of drug sell
ing extremely hard TO get.
With Phillips yesterday there was held
also man giving his name as Michael
Sullivan. His bail was fixed at $4,000.
The detectives did not ask that his bail
be made high. telling the court that he
was only a salesman who worked on
commission and was not In the con-
trolling ring. The court was Informed
also that Phillips and Sullivan between
them sold to about 600 cutomers day
at 81 each and that the profit on their
sales was about $500. 1t was stated that
the stuff they sold was what 1t pre-
tended TO be. but that much Of the mar
cotics sold about the city are heavily
adulterated and that the profit on them
is about 1000 per cent.
100000 I'm Drugs Seized.
On last Friday night members of the
Narcotic Squad raided building in Null
berry street close to old Police Head
quarters and seized a quantity of drugs
which they estimated to have cost Its
owners $50, 900. The lot contained NOR
phine. heroin and cocaine In about equal
quantities. and within an hour after the
raid was made another store of drugs
which had been marked for seizure in a
different quarter OF the city was loaded
In truck and disappeared. Both the
quantity confiscated and the quantity
lest a-e convincing proof to DIR. Simon's
mind that one big ring is selling to
nearly all the drug addicts I'm the city.
On the night OF the raid members of
the squad arrested vendor of drugs
at avenue A and Seventy-first street
and trailed the man who had bought
from him TO a tenement house In East
Seventy-sixth street There they found
that the man and his wife and four
children were all drug addicts. The
children, who ranged In ages from ~
years to az, were all emaciated and
their condition pitiful. They are now
being treated in the Willard Parker
Hospital.
But the striking thing about tho case
was a score which had been kept In
pencil on the wall OF one OF the squaild
rooms. II showed that the man was
dealing with several drug vendors and
was not only spending nearly all he
made but was In debt for drugs. The
man worked as a butcher and made
fair wages. and the drug vendors trusted
him 20 the end of every week because
they knew he and his family were so
dependent on them that their score would
he paid even II the family had to 20
without food.