A band of local street toughs known as the Dream Team turned the courtyards of the Queensbridge public housing project into an open-air drug market, officials said yesterday. Now, dozens of suspects face up to 25 years in prison for their alleged roles in the ring.

As part of a strategy to keep violence to a minimum and police at bay, the Dream Team regulated the drug trade in the area and bound its street-level dealers in a “gentlemen’s agreement” to make the Dream Team the sole wholesaler of illegal drugs, police said.

Early last year, police began an 11-month investigation that resulted in the dismantling of the drug ring this week, police announced yesterday. Thus far, the operation has led to the ar rest of 37 individuals, and at least 12 more suspects are still being sought, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said.

“The Dream Team thought if they operated quietly, they could operate indefinitely. They were dreaming,” Mr. Kelly said.

Last April, law enforcement sources said, the 114th Precinct identified the Queensbridge Houses as the most drug-infested area in the vicinity. Further investigation by the police department, the Queens district attorney’s office, and federal drug enforcement agents, however, uncovered a sophisticated operation, allegedly led by Ed “Super Ed” Carrillo, that sold thousands of dollars worth of crack and cocaine each day.

“It was a daily process,” a deputy inspector, John Essic, said. “The dealers would begin at 7 a.m. and then they were relieved in the afternoon.”

The drug ring worked from apartments and in the outdoor courtyards that dot the grounds of the housing complex. Most of the alleged drug dealing, however, was concentrated in an area that residents called “the hill.” The commercial strip where the more than 7,000 Queensbridge residents shopped, worked, and brought their children to day care was constantly lined with independent drug dealers who were supplied by the Dream Team, police said.

There, undercover agents made more than 100 secretly recorded drug buys, purchasing 500 grams of crack at a price of $20 per hit, police said.

Video recordings often showed children and families passing near the drug transactions, the U.S. attorney with responsibility for Queens, Roslynn Mauskopf, said.

“Some of the residents had grown accustomed to seeing this continue,” the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, said. “The residents of the Queensbridge Houses are entitled to live in an environment free from drugs and violence.”

The city’s largest public housing project, the Queensbridge development, at the Queensboro Bridge in Astoria, includes 3,100 apartments spread throughout 26 six-story buildings.

Many of those arrested, including Evon Battle, 36, Shaquana Battle, 18, and Troy Battle, 36, grew up and lived in the housing project, Mr. Brown said.