Notorious 1980s drug dealer arrested in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) – A notorious drug dealer who got his start during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and was so good at hiding his whereabouts that he was known as "the ghost" has been arrested along with dozens of others on new charges, police and prosecutors said Thursday.

James Corley, 51, was charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance and other drug charges after a 15-month undercover investigation that used wiretaps and surveillance, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Forty-four other people were also charged with drug crimes in the dismantling of Corley's operation, known as the Supreme Team, and another drug gang, authorities said.

Corley supplied cocaine to a second gang called the South Side Bloods, and low-level dealers grossed about $15,000 a week in drug sales, Kelly said. Burned by a wiretap before, Corley used at least eight different phones, authorities said.

"He had an uncanny ability to keep his associates in the dark. No one knew where he lived, what phone number he used, what car he drove," Kelly said.

A call to Corley's lawyer wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

The case was pieced together by Detective David Leonardi, who said the dealers used a language called the "5 percenter" where every number and letter had its own word and members decoded messages about drug orders. The wiretaps also netted information on illegal guns and a possible killing in South Carolina.