In 1975 officials identified the five black leaders as Leroy Barnes, James Lofton, Frank Lucas, Steven Monsanto and Robert Stepeney. They reportedly have come to power in the last two years as blacks have gradually gained a larger share of the narcotics business here from Mafia?controlled rings.


Leroy Barnes

According to police intelligence reports, Mr. Barnes is not only one of the biggest black heroin dealers in the city, but he also is involved on the national level.

In the last two years he has set up an organization that handles all aspects of the heroin business from the time the drug is smuggled into the country until it is sold on the streets.

The 43?year?old Mr. Barnes, a flashy dresser who sometimes wears gold?colored suits, lives in a $700?a?month apartment at 3333 Henry Hudson Parkway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

Mr. Barnes has been arrested several times, but has never been convicted of a major crime. He is scheduled to go on trial next month for murder in the Bronx, charged with having been involved in the fatal knifing of a drug dealer in March 1974.

Last April, he was acquitted of charges in the Bronx that he offered a bribe of $131,000 to two police office who stopped his Mercedes?Benz sedan and found a gun in it.

James Lofton

The 29?year?old Mr. Lofton lives in New Rochelle, but the police describe him as a “major supplier of heroin” in the Bronx and Harlem. He, too, has an organization that imports, packages and distributes heroin, according to police intelligence files.

Mr. Lofton has described himself as being in the real?estate business. Police records indicate that he is the owner of a dry cleaning store on Manhattan Avenue. Police records show that he has been arrested at least three times and he has served one prison sentence of less than a year. He has never been arrested on a narcotics trafficking charge.

One of Mr. Lofton's hobbies is sailing. He has a 42?foot boat moored at the New Rochelle Yacht Club.

Frannk Lnucas

Mr. Lucas, 42, is on trial in Manhattan Federal Court on the rarely brought charge of supervising “a criminal enterprise.” He had previously been arrested six times, but was never convicted of a major narcotics charge.

Mr. Lucas, who grew up in North Carolina, heads a ring known as “The Country Boys,” supposedly because most of them come from the South. His activities are confined mainly to Harlem, the police said.

The police suspect that Mr. Lucas has been one of the, most successful black entrepreneurs in establishing direct connections with Asian heroin exporters.

Police officials discussing Mr. Lucas's affluence said that when his home at 923 Sheffield Road, Teaneck, was raided in 1972 by Federal agents, his wife tossed a suitcase from a bedroom window to the ground. The suitcase contained $584,000—mostly in small bills.

Steven Monsanto

Mr. Monsanto, 23, is one of the youngest dealers in the heroin hierarchy, according to investigators.

Intelligence files show that he worked for Mr. Barnes before organizing his own operation. Mr. Monsanto has an apartment on West 129th Street and his dealings are exclusively in Harlem.

Although arrested at least four times on narcotics charges, he has never been convicted of a felony.

In August 1974, Mr. Monsanto was kidnapped, He was released the next day after his relatives raised a ransom. According to the police, the price for his freedom was $130,000.

Robert Stepeney

Mr. Stepeney reputedly is one of the city's major distribu tors of heroin and cocaine, and a powerful figure in black organized crime.

In addition to being an importer, narcotics intelligence reports assert that the 50?yearold Mr. Stepeney has been the “money man,” or financier, for smaller dealers bringing drugs into New York.

Mr. Stepeney, who grew up in the Bronx, lives at 75 Chadwick Road in Teaneck. He has never been convicted of a drug felony, but has served a Federal prison term relating to a tax charge.