Police arrested 28 people—including three high school students—in a cocaine and crack bust in a housing project near Lincoln Center. The suspects are accused of selling drugs inside the Amsterdam Houses—a complex of 13 buildings between 61st and 65th streets, and Amsterdam and West End avenues, the Post reports. After Amsterdam Houses residents began complaining about seeing drug transactions and drug paraphernalia, officers launched an investigation and observed more than 50 drug deals in five different buildings since July. Officials told the tabloid that dealers used students who lived in the complex as "look-outs and dealers-in-training." According to the indictment [Word document], 12 of the suspects were charged with selling controlled substances near a school. more ›

In 2008 state fatalities due to crack, coke, heroin and other drug overdoses were down to their lowest in nearly a decade. Overdose deaths dropped more than a quarter from the previous year to 666, but don't thank Satan. Officials say an opiate antidote drug called naloxone, distributed by community groups as part of heroin users' emergency kits, may have helped lower the number. The AP reports that overdoses remain the third most common cause of death for New Yorkers between 25 and 34. Still the state's most ubiquitous illegal (though not for long?) drug remains marijuana. more ›

The chef at a Staten Island steakhouse known for being a police hangout has been arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover detective. Thomas "TJ" Gleason, 34, a chef at Ruddy & Dean—which is located just one block from the 120 Precinct and the state Supreme Court building—was hit with felony drug dealing charges after purportedly selling $100 of coke at the bar. more ›

Cameron Douglas, the 31-year-old son of actor Michael, is a big time crystal meth dealer—just last year being busted with half a pound of the stuff at the Gansevoort Hotel (where he was living on his father's tab). Originally placed under house arrest, he was brought behind bars once his girlfriend Kelly Sott was caught smuggling heroin to his home in an electric toothbrush. Now the actor/deejay is readying for his sentencing on April 27th—the NY Post reports he faces a minimum 10 years behind bars. Is life imitating art for Michael Douglas? Can he expect to find bunnies boiling in his brownstone next? more ›

An 18-month investigation has ended in arrests for seven members of a Long Island drug ring that dealt the horse tranquilizer Ketamine. The network contained six men, two of whom—James V. Parrino and John T. DiPaola—were charged as major traffickers or "drug kingpins." The remaining four, along with a single female member of the crew were charged with selling or possessing the "makes you feel like you're dead" drug, also known as K or Special K, if you're not into the whole brevity thing. more ›

NY pot smokers are already rubbing their hands together in anticipation of bridge and tunnel medical marijuana trafficking, but there's one group that's not happy about New Jersey's new law—pot dealers! "As I smoker, I think it's great. But from a business aspect, it's going to cut a lot of people," said one illegal purveyor of the drug. more ›

A sonogram technician at Staten Island's Richmond University Medical Center has been charged with raping a female patient while she was on a prescription drug similar to morphine. Kenrussell Salvador, 33, is accused of raping a 30-year-old woman while giving her a sonogram. more ›

An aspiring model "allegedly high on a cocktail of drugs" struck a former high-school track star and his girlfriend as they jogged in Staten Island yesterday, the Advance reports. Daniel Kelley, 23, is in "extremely critical condition" after suffering severe head and chest trauma when he was run down by a black Honda Civic on Hylan Boulevard. The crash left his girlfriend, 18-year-old Gina Siclari, with a broken ankle, scrapes and bruises, according to the daily. more ›

Two police officers were wounded by gunfire last night when a third officer opened fire while chasing a drug suspect. The injured officers were part of a group providing backup for an undercover narcotics unit investigating drug activity near Fordham Road in the Bronx. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says a group of eight men approached the plainclothes officers in a "confrontational manner," and when the car with backup pulled up, the suspects scattered. Three of the officers chased one perp into an apartment building, at which point a pit bull leaped out of a basement apartment at the end of a narrow alley. more ›

A 32-year-old woman arrested for marijuana charges hung herself inside a Brooklyn holding cell, according to the Post. The woman "used her pants to form a crude noose, which she slung around a horizontal cell bar" inside the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville yesterday at around 6:47 pm. She was found dead about 40 minutes after she was locked in the room. more ›

A Queens judge threw out a patient's lawsuit against his doctor for purportedly giving him bad investment advice. John Otto, a former patient of renowned erectile dysfunction expert Dr. Arnold Melman, claimed that the physician abused his power by repeatedly suggesting that Otto put money into his drug development company. Throughout years of treatment of a "highly special nature," Melman allegedly recommended that Otto buy $1 million of shares in Ion Channel Innovations — an investment that Otto claims hasn't paid off, the Daily News reports. According to court documents, the doctor's lawyer says it's too early to expect results. "Dr. Melman is also an investor in Ion Channel, and he, too, has yet to receive a return on his investment," the attorney said. "That is the nature of investing in a startup biotech company." more ›

Back in 2007, cops raided the Bronx home of Alcy Rosario, 27, as he and two accomplices loaded 50 kilos of cocaine—with a street value of $20 million—into duffel bags. Police collared his two partners, but Rosario escaped by running away and jumping into the Bronx River. City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan tells the Post "they never found the body, but they were always checking to see if he might be around," and cops were regularly seen staking out his building. Well, it turns out Rosario actually survived his suicidal plunge in the river, and even went on to lead a life of carefree recreation. On Saturday night, he finally surfaced, after police were alerted to a group of men riding all-terrain vehicles through Van Cortlandt Park. It's unclear why Rosario didn't harness his mutant Bronx River powers to fight off the cops—he's refusing to speak to investigators. He faces charges that could land him eight to 20 years behind bars; his accomplices pleaded guilty after the 2007 arrest and are currently serving seven-year sentences in state prison. more ›

A Mister Softee ice cream truck driver on Long Island was arrested Saturday after undercover narcotics officers saw him park his truck outside a drug dealer's house they had under surveillance. Police say Kenneth Leiton, 22, rolled up to the home around 4 p.m. and entered the house to conduct a drug deal. He then returned to the truck, turned the music back on, and continued along his route. According to the Post, the cops soon "stopped him cold" and found several small bags of coke and a bag of pot hidden in the sprinkles. He's charged with numerous counts of possession of a controlled substance and with endangering the welfare of a child. Also arrested was Randall Surmanek, 23, who was riding in the truck with Leiton, and two individuals at the drug house. Police tell Newsday Leiton was not the truck owner, but it's still another black eye for Mister Softee—earlier this summer a Softee franchisee was accused of threatening to beat a Kool Man driver for invading "his" turf in Queens. And don't even get us started on the jingle wars. more ›

A delivery man for Brooklyn restaurant Sushi Tatsu on Franklin Avenue (in Crown Heights? Prospect Heights? Discuss.) was in the wrong place at the wrong time last night—right outside his restaurant. Police say Lin Jun, 21, was in front of Sushi Tatsu around 7:30 p.m. when he got caught in the crossfire between warring drug dealers. Jun took at least one bullet in the stomach, staggered into the restaurant and collapsed in a pool of blood. Sushi Tatsu manager Helen Wong tells the Daily News, "It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get here, I can't believe it." Jun's currently in critical condition at Kings County Hospital. An unidentified second man, whom police say was the intended target, was shot in the shoulder and is listed in stable condition at the same hospital. And the perpetrators are still at large. more ›

Researchers at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center say they've prompted rodents to forget painful memories by injecting them with a drug called ZIP, which interferes with a neural substance integral memory functions. So it's only a matter of time before you'll be able to pop a pill and forget all about that photo of the Chinese guy's tumors or Lindsay Lohan's awkward appearance with Lily Allen! The Times has a feature on the Brooklyn lab today, as part of a series on brain research. According to Dr. Todd Sacktor, mice who had previously learned to avoid an electrified area of their cage forgot all about the zap zone after a dose of ZIP, and rats forgot about their disgust for a taste that had made them sick. Sacktor believes the drug could one day be used effectively with humans, and a variant of it could also enhance memory. But Dr. Steven E. Hyman, a neurobiologist at Harvard, is urging caution: "We know that people already use smart drugs and performance enhancers of all kinds, so a substance that actually improved memory could lead to an arms race... This possibility of memory editing has enormous possibilities and raises huge ethical issues." more ›

Former TV producer Julie Horner Lankamp was found dead in her Gold Street apartment Tuesday with "her crying young daughter clutching her legs," as the Daily News sensationally puts it. Relatives say they hadn't spoken with Lankamp since Sunday and police don't know how long the two-year-old had been stranded with her mother's body, which had begun to decompose. Lankamp had a broken jaw, bruises, and dried blood pooled near her nose and mouth, but the city medical examiner doesn't believe Lankamp's injuries were caused by a beating. An empty glassine envelope with cocaine residue was found near her corpse, and investigators say her injuries may have been caused by a fall after a drug overdose. Results of a toxicology report are pending, but in the meantime police are looking to interview her ex-husband, who was arrested at the end of last year "for attacking her with a chair while using their child as a human shield," a source tells the News. more ›

Recovering drug addicts can look forward to climbing even further up the walls starting tomorrow, when all drug treatment centers in New York State implement a smoking ban. Bryan Lapsker, a 21-year-old PCP addict, tells amNY he’s been dreading the change: "Nicotine helps (addicts) get through the day. Now you take the nicotine away from us, it's almost impossible to get through the day. Addiction is addiction, I understand that, but nicotine is a legal substance." The state will now spend $8 million training health care workers how to treat nicotine dependence, and if the regulation’s a hit, maybe they’ll finally take away addicts’ caffeine, chocolate and soda pop, too. more ›