Jan. 29, 1965 - Federal and New York City narcotics agents raided a Bronx heroin packaging factory early today, seized a half a million dollars’ worth of dope, and arrested a man they described as the biggest pusher in the Bronx.
He was identified as Leroy (Nicky) Barnes (pictured in glasses), 32, of 300 W. 116th St. Police said he had learned something during a five-year stretch in the pen, but not enough.
They charged that Barnes employed a half dozen girls who packaged the dope, assembly-line fashion, as well as a small army of runners and pushers — about 50 workers in all.
No one in the syndicate, it was said, was allowed to handle more than 15 $3 decks of heroin, with a total weight below the amount needed for a felony arrest. If caught with this amount, the carriers would be charged with dope possession, a misdemeanor.
But the whole deal came tumbling down on Barnes’ head early today. The narcotics agents, who had been tailing him for a month, nailed him on the corner of Washington Ave. and 180th St., Bronx. In his possession, they said, were 15 decks of heroin, the misdemeanor amount.
Not satisfied, the state and city cops hauled their suspect to a three-room apartment at 1789 Davidson Ave., said to be the home of the dope operation.
Inside, they found scales for weighing the dope; dozens of cans of milk sugar, used for its cutting; thousands of small cellophane bags for packaging the individual doses; and hundreds of boxes of rubber bands, with which to package the doses in sets of 15.
Also, police said, they found 5,000 bags filled and ready for the street and another six pounds of pure heroin ready for the assembly line.
So that the employees didn’t sniff the product, there were several boxes of surgical masks for them to wear while working.
Barnes was hit with what he feared most, the felony charge of peddling dope, and was whisked off to Bronx Criminal Court, where Judge Nicholas Delagi held him in $50,000 bail for a hearing Wednesday.
Police said Barnes had been sentenced to five years in jail in 1959 for selling dope. They are still looking for his 50 employees.
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