NYCkayaker FW: marina drug mart

[Harry J. Bubbins]

Fyi

An example of the administration's exploration of privatized revenue
generating for parks? Ala the aquatic development center proposed for
randall's or some of the access denying uses proposed for the hudson river
shore?

The brownies at the restaurant near the marina always tasted great!


More reasons while all contracts and schemes being done by parks need more,
not less, supervision.  Se also the mob influence at brooklyn golf course,
etc etc

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Retired cop charged with running drug mart at marina
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December 15, 2006, 6:54 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) _ A retired police officer and eight others have been arrested
on charges of running a drug market at a city-owned Manhattan marina,
officials said Friday.

Jerome O'Rourke, 42, who retired from the New York Police Department in the
late 1980s, and the others were charged with several counts of criminal sale
of a controlled substance and conspiracy, Special Narcotics Prosecutor
Bridget Brennan reported.

A six-month long investigation recorded 48 sales of cocaine, heroin, crack,
ecstasy and marijuana to undercover narcotics officers at the Dyckman Street
Marina or in the vicinity since May of 2006, Brennan said.

The prosecutor said O'Rourke brokered many of the deals, turning the marina
into a place where large-scale dealers could meet with drug buyers who were
actually undercover officers.

O'Rourke's lawyer, Stacey G. Richman, did not return calls for comment.

Brennan said the undercover officers made 21 narcotics purchases, in amounts
ranging up to 80 grams of cocaine, at or near the marina in upper Manhattan.
She said they also bought "purple haze" marijuana and ecstasy pills.

O'Rourke's family has been operating, maintaining and managing the marina, a
concession leased from the city, for many years, Brennan said.

Police with warrants searched the marina and a number of the defendants'
homes where they found cocaine, marijuana and heroin, the prosecutor said.
New York City park rangers participated in some of the searches at the
marina. 

O'Rourke was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court on the
drug and conspiracy charges. Justice Michael Ambrecht set his bail at
$500,000 and adjourned the case until January.

The other eight suspects involved in the case, who were not city workers,
were arraigned before Ambrecht and ordered jailed without bail. He agreed to
hear their bail applications Monday.



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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--drugs-marina1215dec
15,0,868281.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com.


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