Wife of drug lord flipped Harlem co-op at a 172,000% markup

The old saw is that crime doesn’t pay, but that doesn’t stop people from trying. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is looking to seize the over $400,000 in profits a drug boss’ wife made after flipping her co-op pad she purchased from the city for $250.

In 2004, Nicole McNair-Moultrie bought a three-bedroom apartment at 101 West 115th Street in Harlem from the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development. The city program aimed to increase ownership for low- and middle-income families.

Her husband, Lamont Moultrie, used the building as a base for a large drug-selling operation, according to court documents. After a 15-month investigation, Moultrie and the 35 members of his drug crew were busted in January 2012, DNAinfo reported.

During the raid, agents found 7.3 gallons of PCP worth $4.7 million in an empty apartment next to the Moultries’ unit, and prosecutors estimated the operation brought in $1.5 million in PCP sales, according to court documents. Lamont Moultrie pleaded guilty to manslaughter and operating a major drug ring while his wife pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, DNAinfo reported.

McNair-Moultrie served three and a half years. After she was paroled in late 2014, she sold the apartment to an East Harlem teacher for $430,000 in January 2015, according to records.

“Nicole Moultrie is now out of prison and able to enjoy the fruits of her husband’s drug trade,” Lynn Goodman, a prosecutor, wrote in the petition for civil forfeiture. [DNAinfo] — Dusica Sue Malesevic