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Show Hippie cops bust 36 youths UTICA, N.Y. AP Two long haired, bearded New York State policemen disclosed the story of their nine-month stay among Hippies that led to one of the largest drug raids In the state's history. "It's rotten. You have to live -I with them and eat with them," said Investigator Gerald P. Thomas, 39, as he prepared to head home to his family in Syracuse for a shave and a haircut. Thomas and his 27-year-old partner, who was not identified for "personal" reasons, were among the nearly 70 persons, mostly youngsters, picked up in an early morning raid in three central New York counties State Police described it as "one of the largest narcotics raids in New York State to date." They said it involved youthful pushers who sold drugs such as opium, codeine and marijuana to college and high school students. Of the 36 arrested in Utica, two were 15 years old. At least three juveniles were among the 25 picked up in Syracuse, and a state college biology teacher was arrested in connection with the raid in Morrisville. "They live in dirty pads, with mattresses on the floor, and all they think about is where they are going to get their next fix," Thomas said in the basement of the Utica City Jail, where the youngsters were packed in until they could be charged. In Syracuse, Dist. Atty. Frank Gualtieri described some of the apartments where many youths were picked up as "nothing but filthy holes." Thomas and his partner melted into the Hippie world last April, when the investigation began. They said they faked drug use and pretended to be pushers to convince the suspicious youngsters that they were for real. "We collected a first name one week, a last name the next," Thomas said. He described the youngsters as paranoid and said they were constantly concerned about the police. "The younger ones generally live at home-normal middle class homes-and their parents are either too busy to know what's going on or they don't care," the younger of the two investigators said. |