MANHATTAN
*** Nine men were charged yesterday with operating a drug ring in Washington Heights apartment buildings, authorities said.
Undercover investigators in the nine-month “Operation Hudson View” probe made 11 drug buys worth more than $150,000 from the suspects ay several apartment buildings on West 144th Street.
Five of those charged were arrested, but four remain at large. More than seven pounds of cocaine, $17,000 in cash and drug dealing paraphernalia were also seized in raids.
*** An out-of-control taxi careened across a Midtown sidewalk yesterday and critically injured a pedestrian, police said.
A cab, driven by a 33-year-old man, was traveling westbound on East 49th Street when it struck a truck near Madison Avenue at 7:40 a.m., cops said.
The taxi then mounted the curb and slammed into a 30-year-old pedestrian, and narrowly missed a 52-year-old man who leaped out of the way, police said.
The cab then re-entered traffic and bounced off two taxis, one of which plowed into a truck – propelling the truck into yet another taxi, cops said.
Three people suffered minor injuries. They were treated at Bellevue Hospital, where the critically injured pedestrian was admitted.
No summonses were issued and no one was arrested in the collisions.
*** Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying and locating a Midtown bank robber.
The bespectacled bandit (above) walked into a Bank of America branch on Park Avenue near East 51 Street at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday and slipped a teller a note demanding cash, cops said.
The bank employee handed over an undisclosed amount of money.
The suspect is a black man with a thin build who looks about 28 years old, stands between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 and weighs about 170. He wears eyeglasses and was carrying a backpack.
*** A trio of toughs shot a man as he walked down a Harlem street early yesterday, police sources said.
The 38-year-old victim was on Madison Avenue with his bicycle after he parked his car when two hoodlums approached him near East 131st Street at 12:30 a.m., sources said.
The duo pulled out a gun and fired several shots at the victim as he turned to run away, striking him in the hip.
The victim was taken to Harlem Hospital, while his attackers fled in a car, only to be stopped by cops at 63rd Street and Second Avenue, sources said.
That’s where Miguel Jeffrey, 26, Stanley Curry, 20 and Jason Thompson, 27, all of Brooklyn, were busted.
A firearm was discovered a short distance away.
STATEN ISLAND
*** A Port Richmond driver was busted for forgery after cops stopped him for playing loud music outside a supermarket in Todt Hill, authorities said yesterday.
Francisco Javier, 20, was pulled over in front of a Waldbaum’s on Manor Road at 7:35 p.m. on Wednesday, law-enforcement sources said.
The officer who stopped him quickly realized the temporary New Jersey registration on the tan 1994 Lexus he was driving was phony.
Javier is charged with forgery, possession of a forged instrument and disorderly conduct, authorities said.
Two Stapleton residents were arrested after cops found pot and heroin inside their apartment while executing a search warrant, law-enforcement sources said.
Eric Harrison, 39, and Linda Strong, 46, were nabbed by narcotics cops inside their Gordon Street apartment at 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday, authorities said.
According to a Criminal Court complaint, Harrison was found in the bedroom with marijuana and Strong was in the living room, where cops discovered two glassine envelopes of a brown powdery substance and three straws with the brown powdery residue inside a closet.
Both are charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana, according to a spokesman for DA Daniel Donovan.
THE BRONX
*** Detectives in Melrose are looking for this woman (above) wanted for robbing two elderly men at knifepoint.
The mystery woman first struck last Sunday afternoon, when she pulled a knife on a 67-year-old man inside a Prospect Avenue building and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.
The following Monday morning, she assaulted and mugged a 75-year-old man inside a Tinton Avenue apartment house, cops said.
The thief is a black woman between 35 and 45 years old, between 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-8 and weighs 180 to 200, police said. She has dyed red hair and was wearing a blond wig and a yellow jacket.
*** A 26-year-old man has been indicted in connection with the knifepoint sex attacks on five young women, authorities said.
Jamaal Holton allegedly forced all five victims to perform sexual acts, then robbed some of them as well during a six-month crime spree.
Holton was indicted on eight counts of criminal sexual acts and numerous other charges, including robbery, burglary and endangering the welfare of a child, in the 44-count indictment.