‘The Council’ Streamlined Harlem’s Drug Trade
Drawing on the models of The National Crime Syndicate and the Italian mob’s Commission, Nicky Barnes in 1972 established The Council, an African-American organized crime syndicate. Comprised of 7 black crime bosses who agreed not to infringe on each other’s territories, The Council pooled its members’ money to buy bulk heroin at lower wholesale prices. The syndicate controlled the Harlem heroin trade, arbitrated criminal disputes, and addressed drug related matters. It remained active for over a decade, from 1972 until 1983.
Until the 1960s, black organized crime had revolved around relatively tame stuff such as gambling dens and bookmaking, protection rackets, brothels and prostitution, fencing stolen goods, extortion, fraud, and soft drugs such as marijuana. Things rapidly changed in the late 1960s, when many soldiers returning from Vietnam brought with them a taste for a hitherto relatively niche drug: heroin.
Heroin quickly spread from Vietnam vets to civilians, and by the end of the 1960s, America had an epidemic on its hands. The number of heroin addicts skyrocketed from about 100,000 in 1959, to over a million by 1969, over half of them in the NYC area. The profits from heroin, and to a lesser extent cocaine, were astronomical, generating quick riches for criminals on a scale not seen since the days of Prohibition. However, the high rewards for trafficking in the increasingly popular hard drugs were matched by high risks. Not just from law from law enforcement, but from other drug traffickers.
The Council worked closely with New York’s Lucchese Italian crime family, which supplied the syndicate with raw heroin. Nicky Barnes and his colleagues then diluted, cut, packaged, and sold it on the streets. In due course, The Council’s operations extended beyond Harlem, and they began distributing their product throughout New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, north into Canada, and as far west as Arizona.
The Council was eventually taken down, in large part by its founder, Nicky Barnes. After he was sentenced to life in prison in 1978, Barnes grew bitter upon learning that his Council colleagues had violated their vows, repeated at every Council meeting, to never break their “oath of brotherhood”. Not only had Barnes’ Council brothers stopped paying his lawyers and mismanaged his assets, but as he discovered, one of them was sleeping with his wife. He got his payback by turning informant and turning on his erstwhile Council colleagues. His testimony led to the dissolution of The Council, and the conviction and sentencing of its members to terms ranging from 35 years to life without parole.
