Trafficker convicted of six murders

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 8

Trafficker convicted of six murders

NZPA-Reuter New York A Jamaican drug trafficker, nicknamed “Uzi,” reputed to have been the first to sell crack-cocaine in any black section of New York, was convicted yesterday of crimes including six murders and 17 assaults. The jury foreman told Judge Raymond Dearie that some jurors feared for their safety as Delroy Edwards, leader of one of the largest and most violent drug gangs in New York, was convicted on 42 counts. No date was set for sentencing. Edwards, aged 30, was

called Uzi because he sometimes carried an Uzi sub-machine-gun under his trenchcoat. His 50member gang, or posse, operated in three areas of Brooklyn, as well as in Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Prosecutors said he had run a drug ring since 1984 and brought the trade in highly addictive crack to the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in 1985.

The gang took SUS4O,OOO to SUSIOO,OOO (SNZ6B,OOO to $NZ170,000) a day, they said, and Edwards once paid cash for a

SUSISO,OOO ($NZ257,000) house. He owned several luxurious cars.

Witnesses, including Edwards’ deputy, Kenneth Manning, said Edwards took part in or ordered murders and beatings. A gang member, Norman Allwood, aged 17, was beaten with baseball bats, scalded with boiling water and hanged from a ceiling by chains before his body was left on a Brooklyn street, they said.

Edwards’ lawyer, who accused witnesses of lying to get reduced sentences, said he expected his client to appeal.-