(2 of 3)
Since then, Barnes, who is self-educated and a constitutional-law buff, managed to work his way up from just another Harlem pusher to the reputed Godfather of a multimillion-dollar drug empire. In the process, he is said to have established a close and profitable relationship with the Mob. Reported one black detective to TIME Correspondent John Tompkins: "We recently saw a guy from Mulberry Street [in Manhattan's Little Italy] meeting with Nicky Barnes at a place in The Bronx [on Barnes' turf]. A few years back, Nicky would have had to go downtown to see the Italian." Barnes' 44th birthday party in October 1976 was a tour de force of extravagant self-confidence. As police stakeouts looked on in amazement from across the street, more than 200 members of black organized crime rolled up in their Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces to a catered affair in a private club atop a midtown skyscraper. Also in attendance were dozens of relatives from around the country—and one white, his lawyer. Barnes' financial success is a matter of record—in theory. For 1975 he reported to the IRS that he had earned $288,750. Of that, $1,750 was "wages" and the rest was "miscellaneous income." He also claimed $453,000 in real estate losses as a tax shelter.
Last March, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested Barnes. A federal grand jury had indicted him and five of his top "lieutenants" for conspiring to distribute 44 Ibs. of heroin (estimated wholesale price: $1 million) once a month, starting in November 1976, from Barnes' Harlem garage. New York cops, however, grumbled that the feds had rushed in too soon. Having painstakingly tailed and eavesdropped on Barnes for more than ten years, local narcs figured they were building a better case against him.
When the trial began in October, the Government's case was in trouble. Although prosecutors had assembled hundreds of reels of tape from court-ordered wiretaps and bugs, DEA investigators conceded in court that they had Barnes' voice on only one tape—and that did not involve a conversation about drugs. The defense denied the voice was Barnes' and put on the stand an undercover agent who admitted he now was not certain it was actually Nicky talking. Nor did any of the other tapes link Barnes to narcotics. Though the Government contended that on one reel a man said he had to "pick up a kilo out of Nicky's car," the sound was blurred. A defense audio expert testified that the word was payroll and not kilo. Moreover, kilo is not street slang. Savvy dealers talk about "the package" or "the thing."