Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [8]
“A kid with a Lucchese crew that lived in the neighborhood was also in the car business and the Auto Squad knew it. The cops were watching his house that night. When I passed by, they got a look at what I was driving. I saw their lights come on and knew I had to make a run for it.
“That Mercedes could fly with nothing on it and I was doing over a hundred real quick. I had no way to see where the cop car was, but I could hear the siren right behind me. I ran a couple of red lights and was coming up on Ralph Avenue, a major intersection. I decided to take a chance and run that red light too and see if the cops had balls enough to follow me. I said a little prayer and hit the intersection doing over a hundred. I just missed getting T-boned and made it through. Behind me I heard the screeching of brakes and knew the cop had run out of nerve.
“I kept going a few more blocks and made a left on East Fifty-eighth. By this time the oil lines had exploded and the car was enveloped in a big cloud of smoke. I pulled over and left the car at the intersection of Avenue K and took off running. I saw a cop car coming toward me and ducked behind a telephone pole while they passed. When they got to East Fifty-eighth, they must have seen the cloud of smoke, because they turned and headed in that direction.
“Just then Albert Lattanzi showed up in the work car. I ran across the street and jumped in. I think the cops who had just gone by might have caught sight of me running, but it was too late for them to do anything. We were already gone.
“After we got a few blocks away, Albert reached over and felt my chest to see how fast my heart was beating. He said the whole scene was like something out of a movie. I guess maybe it was.”
EXTORTION
In addition to the stolen-car operation, Andrew’s involvement in the drug trade had increased dramatically in scope and profitability. From initially shaking down a handful of young marijuana dealers by himself, Andrew and his gang were now muscling older dealers selling heavier drugs, such as cocaine. These were large-scale operators whose suppliers protected them. This made the situation a lot more dangerous than it was with the pot dealers.
“We went to a known drug-dealer spot. We grabbed the dealer at gunpoint, forced him to a pay phone, and made him call his supplier for a delivery [later on, beepers replaced pay phones]. When the runner showed up, we robbed him of his money and product. After that, we made him tell us everything we needed to know about their operation, like who was involved, where they operated, and where they kept their inventory.
“And then we went there. We usually put a gun to the guy’s head and said, ‘Listen, either you’re going to pay us a thousand a week or we’re gonna kill you right here, right now.’ A few guys challenged us and had to be forced into line. But most of them agreed to pay without a fight.
“After we got a few guys like that under our belt, we started going to every major drug dealer we could find. In a fairly short time, we had most of the major dealers in the Canarsie, Mill Basin, and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn paying us.
“We didn’t get ’em all, though. Two guys operating out of the housing projects were strong [they had a large organization] and well-insulated. And they were no strangers to violence. If we caught up with them, there was a good chance we’d have had to kill one of them to get the point across.
“They knew we were after them. We were never able to get the information we needed to catch them. Every time we got close, we ran into some kind of obstacle. Eventually, we just walked away and went after other guys.”
ROAD RAGE SHOOTING
For Andrew, 1983 was a big year. He joined Corozzo’s crew and fine-tuned his abilities as a thief and extortionist. He began carrying a gun on a regular basis. But