The four Hispanic dealers, Ramon Matos, Gustavo Restrepo. Hugo Curbello and Lilia Parada, are reputed to be among the largest cocaine dealers in the city. It is unclear if they are involved in heroin trafficking.

Gustavo Restrepo

Police intelligence sources describe Mr. Restrepo along with Mr. Matos as the two biggest Hispanic cocaine dealers in the city.

Mr. Restrepo, a Colombian, allegedly has strong ties there with major cocaine smuggling figures. His organization is a principal supplier for cocaine in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and in Jackson Heights and Astoria, Queens.

Mr. Restrepo was arrested once on a narcotics charge, but he was not convicted.

Ramon Matos

Mr. Matos is characterized as a “multi?kilo operator” in, cocaine, with direct links to smugglers in Colombia. The 32year?old Mr. Matos was born, in the Dominican Republic.

According to police dossiers, he is not involved in the “cut?, ting” or packaging of cocaine once it reaches New York. Instead, Mr. Matos allegedly is a high?level importer who sells to medium?level dealers, mainly on the West Side and in Harlem.

Arrested three times on drug violations charges, Mr. Matos, has never been convicted.

Lilia Parada

The only woman in the list of major drug dealers is 30year?old Miss Parada. Her birthplace is uncertain, but she is believed to have lived in Cuba before coming to the United States.

Intelligence officers said she used two apartments on the West Side, on 107th Street and 109th Street.

Miss Parada is involved only in cocaine and is described as a “major importer and supplier.” She has never been convicted of a narcotics felony.

Hugo Curbello

Little is known about Mr. Curbello's background except that he was born in Cuba.

Police records characterize him as a chief supplier of cocaine in many Hispanic neighborhoods. He is believed to have begun large?scale operations in this area about two years ago, but his history before that is vague.

The latest intelligence reports said that Mr. Curbello maintained two apartments, on West 173d Street in Washington Heights and on Seward Avenue in the Unionport section of the Bronx.

The police also were uncertain of whether Mr. Curbello had an arrest record in this area.

Although Federal and city law enforcement officials have identified many of the major violators, they are still far from crippling their operations. Infiltration of the top levels of narcotics organizations always has been difficult and time?consuming.

“We are trying to emphasize conspiracy cases to get more mileage out of each investigation,” the commander of the police narcotics division, Deputy Chief Joseph A. Preiss, said. “What we are hoping for is a small buy leading to someone bigger and eventually to the top of the ladder. But those cases are hard to make.”