POLICE CLOSE 'DRUG FACTORY'

PATERSON -- Undercover police who chased a suspected drug dealer into a
Pennington Street apartment found "an upscale drug factory," stocked with
$60,000 worth of cocaine and heroin, cutting agents, and other drug
paraphernalia, police said Wednesday.

Although the man that police Task Force officers had pursued from
Pennington Street and 17th Avenue ultimately escaped, police arrested three
other men and seized hundreds of small plastic bags and envelopes
containing powdered heroin and cocaine, authorities said.

"I want people to understand that if you buy drugs in Paterson, we're going
to see you," said acting Police Chief Lawrence Spagnola. "This is just the
beginning. Our Task Force officers and narcotics detectives are
aggressively hitting all known drug areas."

Arrested were Wilfredo Reyes, 19, Raphael Ortiz, 23, and Gerlando Todaro,
34, police said. The three men, all of whom face drug possession and
distribution charges, remained in the Paterson lockup Wednesday afternoon.
Their bail status could not be determined.

Inside police headquarters Wednesday, the drugs and paraphernalia seized in
the bust early Tuesday filled three medium-sized brown paper bags. Each bag
was stapled shut and included a list of its contents.

One list read: "6 plastic baggies of white powder;" "243 glassine envelopes
of white powder;" "103 small plastic baggies containing white powder."
Another read: "Boxes of small plastic baggies;" "Rubber bands;" "Knife with
residue;" "Razor blades;" "Playing cards; "Stamp pads."

Field tests revealed the white powder was heroin and cocaine, police said.

The razors, cards, and knife allegedly were used to divide the cache of
drugs into small amounts, police said. Before being packaged in envelopes
and baggies, the powder was weighed on a digital scale -- which police also
found in the apartment. The stamp pads were used to label the bags and
envelopes.

The bust occurred after Task Force officers Louis DeLucca and Robert
Pleasant saw a man wearing a beige jacket and jeans walk up to a man
sitting in a gray car near Pennington Street and 17th Avenue.

The officers, believing they had witnessed a drug transaction, approached,
but the man in the beige jacket fled north on Pennington, dashing through a
yard, and escaping, according to a police report.

The officers drove away, returning about 20 minutes later with four more
officers. They spotted the suspect near an apartment building at 26
Pennington St. Again, the suspect fled -- this time running to a
third-floor apartment.

The officers pursued the man into a rear bedroom, where they discovered two
other men lying on a thin mattress, the police report states. Atop a chest
of drawers in the bedroom, police allegedly found a large quantity of
suspected heroin and cocaine. Although the initial suspect fled through a
window and down a fire escape, police stopped that chase to secure the
narcotics and arrest the other men. As they searched the apartment, the
police rousted a third man, found in another bedroom, the report states.

In addition to the drugs, detectives seized a bottle of lactose (used for
dilution), grinders, tape, glue, letter pads, and glass stirrers, police
said.

Copyright ) 1998 Bergen Record Corp.