Federal and local cops swarmed into a Brooklyn housing project yesterday and rounded up 16 alleged pot and crack dealers – including a violent Guyanese gang known as the McFarlane Clan.
FBI and NYPD units arrested 16 alleged members of the McFarlanes and a rival gang known as the Marcus Garvey Crips.
“They turned a residential housing complex into a virtual OK Corral of violence,” said FBI Assistant Director Pasquale D’Amuro.
He said the two warring drug-retailing “crews” were well known to residents of Marcus Garvey Village, a housing project in Brownsville. The sweeping bust stemmed from a year-long investigation in which feds and local cops recorded scores of drug-related conversations and made over 100 undercover buys, principally of crack cocaine, authorities said.
The McFarlane Clan was allegedly headed by Shawn McFarlane, 31, and Durwin McFarlane, who is in his late 30s.
Cops said the two, believed to be brothers, were abetted by Aubrey McFarlane, 43, and Chris McFarlane, 28 – whose exact familial relationship is not clear .
The Clan began street-level operations several years ago and had recently been selling large quantities of crack.
The defendants, if convicted, face narcotics conspiracy charges that could land them in prison for ten years.
Prosecutors argued against bail, saying all but two of those arrested were foreign nationals and were considered flight risks.
While none of the defendants were charged with violent crimes, court papers showed that, since 2000, there have been over 40 shootings – including six murders – near the drug-plagued Marcus Garvey houses.
More than half the incidents were directly attributed to turf wars between the two gangs, prosecutors said.