NE man arrested; drug stash seized

Francis Fulmer stepped out of his Mayfair home early yesterday morning and immediately realized that he wouldn't be going to work after all.

Fulmer - dressed in a matching T-shirt and hat for his day job at Penn Treaty Demolition - was met by a team of undercover narcotics cops who had spent the past several weeks studying his every move.

The investigators searched his house on Longshore Avenue near Revere Street and found a staggering stash of drugs including seven kilos of cocaine worth $770,000, $54,000 worth of marijuana, $24,000 worth of Oxycontin and $38,000 in cash, said Narcotics Capt. Chris Werner.

Fulmer, 47, was arrested on numerous drug charges and could face a lengthy return to prison. He already has served seven years in jail on drug and theft convictions, according to court records.

"Essentially, we believe he is a mid-level dealer in the Northeast who distributed powdered cocaine throughout the city," Werner said.

Although Fulmer is once again behind bars, Werner said the investigation is far from finished.

"We're working with the FBI to identify his source, as well as his associates," he said.

Werner credited Sgt. Chester Malkowski and Officers Rich Fitzgerald and Brian Dietz with taking down Fulmer.

When police cornered Fulmer outside his home, he directed them to a large container of marijuana in his basement and told them, " 'OK, you got it all,' " Malkowski said.

The cops kept searching and soon found kilos of cocaine hidden in a crawl space, as well as a kilo press that divided whole bricks of the cocaine into smaller sizes.

"Again, he told us, 'That's it, you got it all,' " Malkowski said.

But the investigators continued to dig, and when they emerged with his hidden stash of cash, Fulmer grew quiet and his shoulder slumped, Malkowski said. "Then we knew that we really got it all."

Fulmer ran his drug operation out of his home, and was frequently seen leaving his home to transact business, Werner said.

He said that Fulmer usually sold an ounce of cocaine for $2,800. Undercover cops allegedly made several purchases from him.

"Time and time again, we're seeing cases like this that indicate the nature of the city has changed," said Narcotics Chief Inspector William Blackburn. "It's now more of a distribution network than a buyer's network."

Blackburn said Fulmer had enough narcotics to fuel millions of drug transactions. *