LIVIN' LARGE ON COCAINE $$
By MURRAY WEISS

Nearly three dozen thugs who committed more than 100 carjacking, robberies, burglaries and home invasions were arrested as cops smashed one of the city's most violent gangs, The Post has learned. The high-living, hard-partying band of criminals dubbed themselves the "Big Bags Gang" - boasting that their hauls were so large, they needed huge sacks to cart off millions of dollars they stole in cash, kilos of cocaine, jewelry and other property, officials said.

The crew was so fearsome, they often impersonated cops, using black Crown Victoria cars equipped with lights, sirens, and radios as they rampaged through the Upper West Side, The Bronx, Westchester and northern New Jersey. Although the suspects frequently targeted other criminals such as drug dealers, the gang was particularly brutal, routinely torturing innocent mothers, fathers and grandparents with their fists or scorching-hot prods until their targets revealed where money and drugs were stashed. In some cases, they rappelled from rooftops to apartments, which they invaded after shooting out the windows.

Officials say the gang stole so much money since 1999 that virtually every member sported a Rolex watch, drove a Porsche, Humvee or some kind of luxury car, and lived in fancy digs.

In addition, they knew how to party.

Authorities say that when the suspects landed a particularly big score, the crew "lived large" - taking off together for the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, the Bogotá in Atlantic City and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where they rented Lamborghini cars and partied until they dropped. Cops say that after one haul last September, gang members carved up a $3 million cocaine rip-off - with each member raking in $80,000 apiece - and then they headed off to Vegas for a week, hitting nightclubs, drinking champagne and frolicking with women. However, while they often resorted to savagery, they were also sophisticated enough to create a phony record company, Big Bag Entertainment, to help them launder money.

Officials say the bulk of the arrests came several months ago, including that of gang ringleader Francesco Perez, nicknamed "Frank Nitti" after the under boss to famed Chicago mobster Al Capone.  Before several big hauls, Perez was heard saying, "Bring your laundry bags." The 35 arrests of Big Bags Gang members remained a closely guarded secret because the case has spawned several other significant drug investigations by the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force. NYPD officials and Bridget Brennan, the city's special narcotics prosecutor, agreed to discuss the case only after receiving inquires from The Post - but they declined to say exactly how the probe began.  NYPD Captain Glen Morisano said the gang began as a ragtag group of small street drug dealers who lived around 180th Street in Washington Heights in the early 1990s.

By 2000, they coalesced around Perez and his right-hand aide, Carlos Baez. They stopped small-time dealing and instead started ripping off bigger players, averaging a heist every two weeks. Morisano said that on Aug. 20, 2001, the gang, sporting sneakers embossed with their Big Bags name on them, started to even rappel from buildings - swinging from a 30th-floor roof at St. Nicholas and Wadsworth avenues and invading a 22nd-floor apartment. And at various times, they were so casual they could be seen carrying box loads of cash and drugs in and out of buildings in broad daylight - including one heist in which they grabbed 140 kilos of cocaine worth several million dollars.

They also started posing as cops.

On one occasion, two gang members pretended they were undercover officers near the George Washington Bridge, where they stopped and carjacked couriers from a Texas-to-New York drug ring and robbed them of $1.3 million in drugs. Morisano said the victims reported a loss of only $10,000 to the nearby 34th Precinct station house in order to show their superiors that they were robbed and did not steal their illicit wares.

Then, in early in 2003, Brennan said the gang began to hang out at a car wash in The Bronx, where Winston John, a hip-hip producer, regularly cleaned his incredible fleet of Ferraris, Mercedes-Benzes and Porsches. In an automotive hip-hip magazine John said he had to have the lavish accoutrements of a rap mogul because "when you show up to do these million-dollar deals you're judged by what's on your wrist, how you take care of yourself and by what [you] drive."  John told the group he was a lawyer and then helped them create their record company. For his efforts, he received $50,000, Morisano said. But Brennan says John "is not a lawyer and the company he helped create, indicating it produced music, had a postal box, some stationery and as far as we are concerned did not engage in any legitimate business," Brennan said.

Finally, late last year, the NYPD-DEA "Redrum Squad," led by Detectives Armond Rodriguez and Salvatore Palumbo, zeroed in on the gang. On Dec. 5, they tried to arrest Perez, but he took off in his 2004 Porsche Cayenne Turbo and the cops stopped the pursuit as he soared to more than 120 mph on the Saw Mill River Parkway. When they caught up with him later at his $500,000 Eastchester home, Perez was calm and seemingly relieved to learn he was pursued by police - and not by vengeful drug assassins. A warrant search turned up a secret compartment in a dining room table that concealed a gun. The cops then rounded up the rest of the 35 suspects, including John, who was picked up at his $2.1 million mansion in New Rochelle. Most members were slapped with charges of money laundering and conspiracy to possess and distribute drugs. They are all currently under indictment and held on as much as $500,000 bail. The cops say their investigation is continuing, but they have already tied at least five police-impersonation robberies to the Big Bags Gang. Moreover, they have seized down payments on two new posh homes - $1 million spreads in New Rochelle and Harrison - and cars gang members and their families were buying apparently with the proceeds of their drug operation.