NYPD - 13 top NYC narcotics dealers in 1975

[Wiseguy]

Interesting article I've come across a few times...



TOP DRUG DEALERS NAMED BY POLICE
By Selwyn Raab, New York Times
December 9, 1975

Thirteen drug traffickers—four whites, five blacks and four Hispanic persons—are now believed by narcotics investigators to be the dominant figures in the city's heroin and cocaine underworlds.

The 13 have been identified by knowledgeable law‐enforcement officials as being either principal dealers or the financiers behind many narcotics deals. All 13, including one woman, have become prime targets of city and Federal investigators.

Law‐enforcement officials say that while they have been able to identify many of the major narcotics dealers, bringing charges against them that will stand up in court has been far more difficult. Among the major problems, the police say, is that such operators have dealings about criminal matters only with their most trusted underworld associates, and have become increasingly wary of making incriminating remarks during telephone conversations.

The four white narcotics operators, Joseph and Charles DiPalermo, who are brothers, Virgil Alessi and Ralph Tutino, reportedly have long associations with the Mafia. They allegedly are concerned primarily with heroin distribution.

Officials identified the five black leaders as Leroy Barnes, James Lofton, Frank Lucas, Steven Monsanto and Robert Stepeney. They reportedly have come to power in the last two years as blacks have gradually gained a larger share of the narcotics business here from Mafia‐controlled rings.

The four Hispanic dealers, Ramon Matos, Gustavo Restrepo. Hugo Curbello and Lilia Parada, are reputed to be among the largest cocaine dealers in the city. It is unclear if they are involved in heroin trafficking.

All 13 have been included in a list of 100 major narcotics violators compiled by the intelligence section of the Police Department's organized crime control bureau. The list is based on the activities of major and medium‐level drug dealers who have been detected through undercover surveillance or informers.

Most of the 13 reputed top dealers have never been convicted of a major narcotics accusation.

Because of arrests, deaths and the emergence of new dealers, the list called the “Yellow Book,” is frequently revised.

Officials emphasized that no single group controlled New York's billion‐dollar narcotics trade.

The police have maintained a list of 100 leading dealers since 1971 as a means of establishing priorities in narcotics investigations. The list is a top notice secret; available only to the highest narcotics and intelligence division officers. However, through interviews with narcotics detectives and city and Federal intelligence officials the following profiles of the 13 alleged top dealers have been compiled:

Joseph DiPalermo

At the age of 68, Mr. DiPalermo is still described by narcotics investigators as “one of the top dealers” in New York.

In his younger days, before getting involved in drugs, he was an “enforcer” for Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, two major Mafia bosses. Mr. DiPalermo's only prison sentence for drugs came in 1959 when he, his brother, Charles, and the late Mr. Genovese were convicted on Federal narcotics charges.

During his sentence at the Atlanta Penitentiary, another convict, Joseph Valachi, believed that Mr. DiPalermo had been ordered to kill him. In May 1962, Mr. Valachi mistakenly killed a prisoner who resembled Mr. DiPalermo. It was that murder that prompted Mr. Valachi to make extensive disclosures about the Cosa Nostra, or Mafia.

Mr. DiPalermo, who has an apartment on Elizabeth Street, conducts his operations from Little Italy and restaurants along lower First and Second Avenues. His last arrest was in 1958.

Charles DiPalermo

Law ‐ enforcement officials consider 53‐year‐old Charles DiPalermo a ranking narcotics figure, although he is known to be a junior partner in his brother's business. The younger Mr. DiPalermo has a home in the Rockland County community of Greenwood Lake, but he is frequently seen with his brother in Little Italy. Because of his brother's advancing years. Charles is believed to have taken a larger part in both heroin and cocaine trafficking.

Both brothers are thought to be members of the Carmine Tramunti “family.” Charles DiPalermo was last arrested last July in Point Lookout L. I., by Federal agents on narcotics charges. The agents said they had found 10 kilos of heroin and $166.000 in three automobiles parked nearby.

Virgil Alessi

Much of the heroin now available in the metropolitan area is believed to be distributed through an organization run by Mr. Alessi, who also is known as Vinnie Vergalisse. The 43‐year‐old Mr. Alessi assertedly took control of areas in Queens and elsewhere when Vinccent Papa was sentenced to a Federal prison two years ago.

Mr. Alessi, who had been one of Mr. Papa's chief aides, is believed to have knowledge of the $70 million theft of “The French Connection” heroin from the Poice Department's Property Clerk's office at Police Headquarters. He has been arrested at least twice on drug charges, but has never been convicted.

Last September Mr. Alessi was indicted on a Federal drug conspiracy charge. He was also indicted earlier in a state court for perjury in “The French Connection” case.

Ralph Tutino

Mr. Tutino, 47 years old, lives in the Bronx, but his headquarters are still in the old Italian section of East Harlem.

He reputedly was a large scale dealer of heroin in the Harlem area when Turkish supplies were plentiful in the early 1970's.

When Turkey prohibited the planting of opium poppies in 1973, Mr. Tutino. unlike other Mafia figures, apparently was able to establish new connections either with Asian or Mexican heroin exporters. Although no longer a major supplier for Harlem, Mr. Tutino reportedly is supplying heroin dealers in other parts of the city.

He is now on trial in Federal Court in Manhattan on a drug conspiracy accusation.

Leroy Barnes

According to police intelligence reports, Mr. Barnes is not only one of the biggest black heroin dealers in the city, but he also is involved on the national level.

In the last two years he has set up an organization that handles all aspects of the heroin business from the time the drug is smuggled into the country until it is sold on the streets.

The 43‐year‐old Mr. Barnes, a flashy dresser who sometimes wears gold‐colored suits, lives in a $700‐a‐month apartment at 3333 Henry Hudson Parkway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

Mr. Barnes has been arrested several times, but has never been convicted of a major crime. He is scheduled to go on trial next month for murder in the Bronx, charged with having been involved in the fatal knifing of a drug dealer in March 1974.

Last April, he was acquitted of charges in the Bronx that he offered a bribe of $131,000 to two police office who stopped his Mercedes‐Benz sedan and found a gun in it.

James Lofton

The 29‐year‐old Mr. Lofton lives in New Rochelle, but the police describe him as a “major supplier of heroin” in the Bronx and Harlem. He, too, has an organization that imports, packages and distributes heroin, according to police intelligence files.

Mr. Lofton has described himself as being in the real‐estate business. Police records indicate that he is the owner of a dry cleaning store on Manhattan Avenue. Police records show that he has been arrested at least three times and he has served one prison sentence of less than a year. He has never been arrested on a narcotics trafficking charge.

One of Mr. Lofton's hobbies is sailing. He has a 42‐foot boat moored at the New Rochelle Yacht Club.

Frank Lucas

Mr. Lucas, 42, is on trial in Manhattan Federal Court on the rarely brought charge of supervising “a criminal enterprise.” He had previously been arrested six times, but was never convicted of a major narcotics charge.

Mr. Lucas, who grew up in North Carolina, heads a ring known as “The Country Boys,” supposedly because most of them come from the South. His activities are confined mainly to Harlem, the police said.

The police suspect that Mr. Lucas has been one of the, most successful black entrepreneurs in establishing direct connections with Asian heroin exporters.

Police officials discussing Mr. Lucas's affluence said that when his home at 923 Sheffield Road, Teaneck, was raided in 1972 by Federal agents, his wife tossed a suitcase from a bedroom window to the ground. The suitcase contained $584,000—mostly in small bills.

Steven Monsanto

Mr. Monsanto, 23, is one of the youngest dealers in the heroin hierarchy, according to investigators.

Intelligence files show that he worked for Mr. Barnes before organizing his own operation. Mr. Monsanto has an apartment on West 129th Street and his dealings are exclusively in Harlem.

Although arrested at least four times on narcotics charges, he has never been convicted of a felony.

In August 1974, Mr. Monsanto was kidnapped, He was released the next day after his relatives raised a ransom. According to the police, the price for his freedom was $130,000.

Robert Stepeney

Mr. Stepeney reputedly is one of the city's major distributors of heroin and cocaine, and a powerful figure in black organized crime.

In addition to being an importer, narcotics intelligence reports assert that the 50‐year old Mr. Stepeney has been the “money man,” or financier, for smaller dealers bringing drugs into New York.

Mr. Stepeney, who grew up in the Bronx, lives at 75 Chadwick Road in Teaneck. He has never been convicted of a drug felony, but has served a Federal prison term relating to a tax charge.

Gustavo Restrepo

Police intelligence sources describe Mr. Restrepo along with Mr. Matos as the two biggest Hispanic cocaine dealers in the city.

Mr. Restrepo, a Colombian, allegedly has strong ties there with major cocaine smuggling figures. His organization is a principal supplier for cocaine in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and in Jackson Heights and Astoria, Queens.

Mr. Restrepo was arrested once on a narcotics charge, but he was not convicted.

Ramon Matos

Mr. Matos is characterized as a “multi‐kilo operator” in, cocaine, with direct links to smugglers in Colombia. The 32year‐old Mr. Matos was born, in the Dominican Republic.

According to police dossiers, he is not involved in the “cut‐, ting” or packaging of cocaine once it reaches New York. Instead, Mr. Matos allegedly is a high‐level importer who sells to medium‐level dealers, mainly on the West Side and in Harlem.

Lilia Parada

The only woman in the list of major drug dealers is 30 year‐old Miss Parada. Her birthplace is uncertain, but she is believed to have lived in Cuba before coming to the United States.

Intelligence officers said she used two apartments on the West Side, on 107th Street and 109th Street.

Miss Parada is involved only in cocaine and is described as a “major importer and supplier.” She has never been convicted of a narcotics felony.

Hugo Curbello

Little is known about Mr. Curbello's background except that he was born in Cuba.

Police records characterize him as a chief supplier of cocaine in many Hispanic neighborhoods. He is believed to have begun large‐scale operations in this area about two years ago, but his history before that is vague.

The latest intelligence reports said that Mr. Curbello maintained two apartments, on West 173d Street in Washington Heights and on Seward Avenue in the Unionport section of the Bronx.

The police also were uncertain of whether Mr. Curbello had an arrest record in this area.

Although Federal and city law enforcement officials have identified many of the major violators, they are still far from crippling their operations. Infiltration of the top levels of narcotics organizations always has been difficult and time‐consuming.

“We are trying to emphasize conspiracy cases to get more mileage out of each investigation,” the commander of the police narcotics division, Deputy Chief Joseph A. Preiss, said. “What we are hoping for is a small buy leading to someone bigger and eventually to the top of the ladder. But those cases are hard to make.”


https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/09/arch ... of-13.html

[Pogo The Clown]

Interesting that then DeCavalcante Associate Virgil Alessi was listed as a top dealer in NY at that time.


Pogo

[Wiseguy]

Interesting that then DeCavalcante Associate Virgil Alessi was listed as a top dealer in NY at that time.


Pogo

I don't know how factual it is but an online bio said he started out as a Lucchese associate before becoming made in the DeCavalcante's New York crew.

The other three Italians on the list were also affiliated with the Luccheses, if I'm not mistaken.

[Pogo The Clown]

Could be. He was inducted into the DeCavalcantes in 1976/7.


Pogo

[sdeitche]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[JeremyTheJew]

Very interesting to see mostly Lukes on this list....
As well as D Arco I believe mentioned them also....

Surprised not even a Bonanno is mentioned. This is right around pizza connection time too but probably was not known at time or article maybe??