Drug-ring leader gets life term, dad gets 12 years

Teddy Young was the man to see in Germantown if a dealer wanted to buy bundles of heroin to sell, authorities said.

Young, 37, bought 25 kilograms of heroin from a supplier in Philadelphia and two from New York city and oversaw a "cut" house where four workers diluted and repackaged the heroin - stamped "Midnight," "SUV" and "All Natural" - for resale throughout the city, according to authorities.

What was unusual for the ringleader of a $6.24 million heroin trafficking organization, employing 18 others, was that Young delivered the bundles himself to neighborhood dealers and picked up the drug proceeds from November 2000 to June 2002, authorities said.

If a dealer couldn't see Teddy, he might talk to his father, Theodore Young Sr., 74, who taught his son everything he knew about the drug business.

"We believe Theodore taught Teddy the acquisition, processing and trafficking of heroin," said assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Velez, who prosecuted the father-son team and co-defendant David Lee in a four-week trial last April.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel sentenced Teddy to life in prison, and his 75-year-old father to 12 years behind bars.

Last May 2, the three defendants, all of Germantown, were convicted of conspiracy to deliver heroin within 1000 feet of a school - J. B. Kelly Elementary, on Pulaski Street near Hansberry - and related offenses. The ring's cut house operated near the school.

The trio also was found guilty of possession with intent to deliver more than 100 grams of heroin and use of a communications facility - for which Teddy was convicted of multiple counts.

The convictions were the culmination of a six-year investigation by local, state and federal drug agents.

Earlier, Lee, in his late 30s, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, after selling heroin at Chew and , said Velez.

Fifteen others, who served as street dealers, suppliers, cuthouse workers and facilitators, entered guilty pleas or were found guilty. Their sentences ranged from a year and a day to life imprisonment.

The 19th co-defendant, heroin addict Frank Robinson, 52, died in 2002, after serving as Teddy's "tester" to determine the opiate's quality. *