Bronx Crime Watch: Williamsbridge Drug Gang Indicted

A Bronx grand jury indicted 40 supposed drug dealers last week in connection to a massive cocaine-selling scheme in Williamsbridge, according to the Bronx District Attorney's office.

Police had been watching the group for over two years, in an investigation that sounds like something straight out of "The Wire," complete with undercover drug buys and taped telephone conversations.

The dozens charged stand accused of selling seven kilograms (that's over 15 pounds, or $250,000 worth) of crack cocaine a week, setting up shop along White Plains Road, between 211th and 241st Streets.

Two men believed to be the masterminds behind the enterprise--Sean “Showboy” Nelson, 31, and Jason Weir, 27, both of the Bronx--face the most serious offense of the group and a mandatory life prison sentence if convicted.

Bronx Crime Watch: D.A. Busts 22 Alleged Drug Dealers at River Park Towers

Last week, a grand jury indicted 22 alleged drug dealers from River Park Towers, a complex of high-rise apartment buildings at Richmond Plaza, on the Major Deegan Expressway in Morris Heights. The defendants are charged with multiple counts of selling and possessing cocaine, heroin and marijuana, according to press release from the Bronx District Attorney's Office sent out last week.

The arrests were the result of an undercover investigation launched last June in response to an increase in shootings and other violent incidents at the Towers. The 22 people being charged, who range in age from 23-years-old to 51-years-old, sold drugs to undercover detectives more than 120 times. The deals primarily took place in a public courtyard shared by several of the apartment buildings, which investigators described as a "drug bazaar."

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Bronx Crime Watch: Man Charged in Death of 8-week-old

Gregory Gray, a 21-year-old Mt. Hope resident will be arraigned tonight on charges that he caused the death of an 8-week-old baby girl. Although, the baby's last name is also Gray and her residence is the same as Gregory Gray's, the Bronx District Attorney's office could not confirm whether she was his child. Gray is facing manslaughter charges after the medical examiner's office ruled Demi Gray's death a homicide. Demi died on Wednesday after being taken to St. Barnabas hospital.

Bronx News Roundup, May 5

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Now here's some BX news for you:

Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas was back in the courtroom yesterday after going AWOL for a couple of days. Villegas is facing a law suit filed by a former law school colleague that claims Villegas owes her $500,000, which he borrowed to pay back a gambling debt.

Special needs students from the New York League for Early Learning's Harry H. Gordon School got a taste of Little Italy yesterday as the pre-preschoolers ventured through restaurants on Arthur Avenue.

The Bronx district attorney's office has dropped all charges against the four Bronx boys who were accused of hitting an off-duty police officer with a snowball.

Eighth graders from the Learning Tree Cultural Preparatory School in the Bronx took a two-week trip to Kenya to trace President Obama's roots.

Just for a day, the chronically ill teenagers from the Children's Hospital at Montefiore were able to forget their pains and enjoy their first Prom Night.

During his battle with the state legislature over the state's financial crisis, Governor Paterson offered lawmakers the choice of either giving him authority to furlough more than 100,000 state employees or face a shut down of New York's government.

As part of "Affordable Housing Day," city officials announced in the Bronx on Monday that 100,000 affordable homes have been completed. They have a goal of completing 165,00o by 2014.

The city announced it will be building a new complex in the Melrose that will have green roofs, along with a series of gardens where residents can plant vegetables.

News Roundup for July 31

Apparently the United Nations is just as problematic a construction project as the Croton Water Filtration Plant. After some false starts, the Swedish construction firm Skanska AB, one of the contractors involved in the filtration plant, was selected by the UN to manage the renovation of its headquarters in Manhattan. Reuters has the details of the $7 million initial contract that could yield $1 billion for Skanska over time.

Gotham Gazette has a feature by a high school student from New Youth Connections , about efforts to expand mental health services and counseling in the public schools.

The New York Post looks at Joel Klein's five years as schools chancellor and his accomplishments so far. None of his predecessors has lasted that long since the post was created in 1970.

A Daily News story reports on another uninhabitable city-subsidized apartment. Tenant Steven Berry was forced to move his asthmatic kids out of the Valentine Ave. apartment because the power was cut off and he can't plug in the kids' nebulizers. Councilman Joel Rivera is calling for the Department of Homeless Services to withhold rent in situations like this.

And Bob Kapstatter reports in his Bronx Boro News (supplement to the Daily News) column (not on-line yet) that Bronx District Attorney is running unopposed again, at this point, and that Adolfo Carrion has been fined $6,875 by the Campaign Finance Board for campaign finance violations.