Edition: U.S. / Global

Property Valued At $40 Million Seized in Raids

Published: August 2, 1991

The authorities yesterday seized what they claimed was $40 million worth of real estate, merchandising and used-car businesses that an important New York City drug ring used to transform its illegal proceeds into legitimate financial enterprises, Federal, state and city law-enforcement officials said.

The ring was described as a classic example of how drug traffickers use their profits to infiltrate the legitimate business sector.

Leaders of the ring used the money, gathered through a heroin-trafficking operation that took in $20 million a month, not only to buy into used-car dealerships and condominum apartments and houses, but also to buy the rights to sell T-shirts, toys and other merchandise depicting the Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles, the authorities said.

Federal agents said the merchandising rights, which were for Argentina, were purchased through one of the companies set up by the leader of the drug ring, Eric Millan-Colon. But Brian Dobson, a spokesman for Serge Licensing, which handles licensing for the Ninja Turtles, said that the the company in question, Ejay Enterprises, was retained only for a brief period for a Ninja Turtle concert tour in Argentina and that Ejay has nothing to do with merchandising Ninja Turtle products in that country. 30 Are Arrested

James Milford, of the New York office of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, said the businesses, which included a car-rental company and a grocery store, were used to launder the ring's illegal profits and to provide places to store or sell drugs and to hold meetings to discuss the drug trade.

Members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force said 400 police officers, Federal agents and state troopers arrested 30 people in pre-dawn raids at 51 places in the metropolitan region yesterday. They also confiscated safe-deposit boxes containing records, 20 weapons, 2.5 kilograms of heroin and more than 100 used cars.

At one building raided, 110 Baruch Drive in lower Manhattan, a man with a .357-caliber Magnum pistol fired at drug agents, none of whom were injured. The authorities arrested a man they said had shot at him, Alex Pacheco, 23 years old, of that address. Commissioner's Warning

The task force officials announced the action at a news conference in the early afternoon at what they called one of the ring's businesses, Auction Cars at 2015 East Tremont Street in the Parkchester section of the Bronx.

Standing on the long, narrow gravel lot, filled with 80 late-model cars, Lee P. Brown, the New York City Police Commissioner, said the raid was a warning "to those involved in the drug trade."

"We'll take your drugs," Mr. Brown said. "We'll take your money. We'll take your cars. We'll take your liberty, and, I guess I should add for this occasion, we'll take your condominium."

Jess Fardella, an assistant United States attorney in Manhattan who supervises that office's special narcotics unit, said the police action was an example of why the task force was organized in the early 1980's -- to crack the upper levels of drug trafficking organizations and arrest the organizers and suppliers of the street drug networks. 'Blue Thunder'

According to the officials, Mr. Millan-Colon, 29, of 5 Remson Road in Yonkers, organized the drug ring, which the authorities called "Blue Thunder," on the ruins of a Bronx-based network that was cracked five years ago.

"He was familiar with that setup," Mr. Milford said. "He knew some of the top people involved. When we sent them to prison, he stepped in and filled a void."

Mr. Milford said that unlike the raid five years ago, yesterday's led them to Mr. Millan-Colon's suppliers, who the authorities identified as Alfred V. Bottone, 51, of 3803 Oriole Court in Shrub Oak, N.Y. Mr. Battone's son, Alfred Jr., 28, of 602 Woods Brooke Drive, in Mahopac, N.Y., was also arrested.

Mr. Milford said the Battones smuggled the heroin in from Southeast Asia, along the Thailand-Burma border, where poppy production has been especially fruitful in the last year, then passed it on to Mr. Millan-Colon's group, which sold it on the streets.

Photo: In a crackdown on a drug-trafficking operation, the authorities seized an estimated $40 million worth of real estate and businesses. Officials inventoried cars at Auction Cars in the Bronx, one of the businesses seized. (Associated Press)