Edition: U.S. / Global

Constant Reality in a Project: Fear of Violent Drug Gangs

Published: May 15, 1989

Mary Singleton says she knows two apartments in her building where people sell crack, bringing addicts and random gunfire to what was once a decent, safe housing project. But Ms. Singleton says nothing to the police. The last time she complained, she says, her teen-age daughter was attacked, beaten and threatened with a razor.

''When you tell the police and you are left stranded, there's a lot of fear,'' she said. ''The cops left me hanging.''

Ms. Singleton, a graying woman of 42, has deep worry lines under her eyes, perhaps in part from living in the Edenwald Houses in the Bronx, where Federal authorities recently broke up a drug-dealing ring, known as the 41 Crew, that they said held the project's 6,000 residents ''under siege.'' An Atmosphere of Dread

But a week after the indictment of 10 people as members of the ring put an end to what the police called the largest criminal organization in the 61-building complex, several residents spoke of an atmosphere of dread still pervading the red-brick high-rises and asphalt courtyards of the Edenwald Houses.

The arrests, while dealing a blow to the virulent drug trade in some buildings, have not ended the ordeal of the residents. On Friday, three people, the casualties of warring drug factions in Edenwald, were found shot to death in an apartment building not far from the project. Dozens of dealers belonging to as many as 10 smaller gangs, residents say, are still operating crack houses in the Edenwald complex, at East 229th Street and Laconia Avenue in the Williamsbridge section.

Of the 10 indicted, six are being held in the Federal jail in Manhattan without bail; two have been released on bail, and two are serving state prison terms for other crimes.

The police say they investigate every complaint, including those like Ms. Singleton's, but are often unable to substantiate them. Search warrants are difficult to obtain, they said, without the help of informers who have been inside the apartments. And informers are in short supply because they have more to fear from the dealers than from the police.

''We're living in fear,'' said a mother of two who lives in the projects and asked not to be identified. ''My kids are scared to go out the door.''

Another mother, who also asked for anonymity, said she scheduled her trips in and out of her apartment in 1141 East 229th Street to coincide with times when maintainence crews were cleaning the hallways. That way, she said, she avoids crack users who often linger outside her apartment door.

In the last three years, residents said, drug trafficking has transformed Edenwald from a quiet, relatively safe community into a hellish place where gunfire often rings out in hallways or on playgrounds, where drug dealers recruit teen-agers to sell crack or act as lookouts, where tenants are held hostage by scores of drug addicts in the hallways and stairwells. 'Shooting Up' in Hallways

''When I first moved here, this was a nice project, a good place to live,'' said Ms. Singleton, a single mother who has lived at 1159 East 229th Drive since 1980 and works as a secretary for a hospital workers union, Local 1199 of the Drug, Hospital and Health Care Employees Union.

''Now we have shootings,'' she said. ''We have people who have been robbed here. We find crack people shooting up or smoking the stuff in the hallways.''

The invasion of drug dealers has caused the number of crimes in Edenwald to more than double in the last five years, according to New York City Housing Authority statistics. The number of assaults rose to 149 last year, up from 66 in 1984, and larcenies and robberies nearly tripled over the period, to 99 and 88 respectively.

Before 1985, the Edenwald Houses had one or two murders a year, usually stemming from domestic disputes. Since 1986, when the crack trade first appeared in Edenwald, 11 people have been killed, 8 of them in gunfights set off by drugs. Last year, all 4 of the people killed in the project died in drug-related shootouts.

The violence escalated in January, when 5 men were wounded in a gunfight outside a building at 1132 East 229th Street, which until recently was controlled by drug dealers. Another man was shot eight times in March in a drug dispute a few hundred yards away but survived. 'Like the Wild West'

''It was like the Wild West,'' said Lieut. David Cuevas, who heads a 16-officer narcotics task force set up in February in response to the shootings. ''The projects were just being run by local criminals.''

''The tenants are terrorized,'' added Detective Harry Graves, a member of the task force. ''That's why we're here, to take back the buildings.''

The task force took over the ground floor of the building at 1132 East 229th Street and, like soldiers establishing a beachhead, pushed the drug dealers out. Officers now use its roof to spy on dealers in other parts of the complex.

Since Feb. 14, the task force has arrested 380 people on drug charges, with most of them between the ages of 16 and 21. The onslaught on low-level dealers helped force the leaders of the 41 Crew into the open to sell drugs themselves, Lieutenant Cuevas said.