Opinion
October 17, 1988
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Bourgeois, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant was one of three men arrested in a so-called "buy and bust" operation which netted a quantity of cocaine. The defendant's principal claim is that his arrest was unsupported by probable cause. The existence of probable cause depends upon whether it appeared more probable than not that a crime had been committed and that the defendant was one of the perpetrators (see, People v Lane, 102 A.D.2d 829). After he purchased the cocaine, the undercover officer radioed his backup team a description of the three alleged perpetrators who were immediately arrested. The testimony of the arresting officer as to the description he received of the defendant is nearly identical to the description that the undercover officer testified he transmitted, although not quite as detailed. We conclude that the description of the defendant that the arresting officer received combined with the testimony concerning the small number of men on the street (5 to 7) at the time of the transmission and the arrest, the undercover officer's testimony that he handed the "buy money" to the defendant and his testimony that — equipped with a radio — he observed the backup team arrest the three men he identified more than established that criminal activity was afoot and that the defendant was one of the perpetrators.
The defendant's remaining contentions have been considered and have been found to be either unpreserved for appellate review (see, People v George, 108 A.D.2d 870; People v Jalah, 107 A.D.2d 762) or without merit (see, People v Washington, 111 A.D.2d 418; People v Walker, 104 A.D.2d 573; People v Suitte, 90 A.D.2d 80; People v Garafolo, 44 A.D.2d 86). Lawrence, J.P., Kunzeman, Sullivan and Balletta, JJ., concur.