oy-vey
they busted my connection,
what am i going to do?<vbg>
Women, 79 and 77, Are Charged in Drug Sales
By ANDY NEWMAN
or months, neighbors said, there had been a suspicious amount of teenage traffic in the first- and fourth-floor hallways of 125 Brighton 11th Street in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, a high-rise populated largely by elderly Russian-Americans.
The youths were not, apparently, going to visit Grandma. Not their Grandmas, anyway.
They were there to buy the prescription narcotic Dilaudid, which two dealers, one 79 years old, the other 77, sold out of their apartments for $10 a pill, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said yesterday.
The two women, Rosa Shusterman and Faina Kodner, were arrested yesterday morning and charged with selling drugs after a monthlong undercover investigation, said Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the district attorney's office.
Narcotics agents found 40 pills of Dilaudid, technically known as hydromorphone hydrochloride, in Ms. Kodner's first-floor apartment, and 30 pills in Ms. Shusterman's apartment on the fourth floor, a law enforcement official said.
Both women also had many hypodermic needles on hand, which they sold for $3 each, Mr. Schmetterer said. Ms. Shusterman would allow customers to shoot up in her apartment, he said.
Ms. Kodner refused to open her door to the police yesterday and fell while trying to get out of the way when they forced the door, sustaining a cut that needed three stitches, Mr. Schmetterer said.
The authorities do not believe that the two women were working together, Mr. Schmetterer said, adding that the women would sell only to customers who spoke Russian. The authorities have yet to determine how they acquired the pills, Mr. Schmetterer said.
Dilaudid, which according to the Web site streetdrugs.org is two to eight times as potent as morphine, is a popular substitute for heroin. |
