Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jul 2005
Source: Star-Banner, The (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The Star-Banner
Contact:  http://www.starbanner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1533
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

A GROWTH INDUSTRY THAT'S UNWELCOME

Drug dealing is nothing new to Marion County. After all, this is 
Florida -- and the state's geographic location, shorelines and 
growing population have long made it an easy mark for drug traffickers.

But the arrests this past weekend of Gerald Dandridge of Ocala and 10 
of his alleged accomplices on drug trafficking charges are fresh yet 
frightening evidence that the illicit drug trade here is a growth 
industry that has escalated to an unprecedented level.

Law enforcement officials on Wednesday called the bust the most 
significant in the county's history. The Dandridge gang was brought 
down after a 1 1/2-year investigation by the local-state-federal 
Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team, known as UDEST. Besides the 
arrests -- with more to come, according to agents -- lawmen seized 17 
kilograms of cocaine, 250 pounds of marijuana, 20 weapons (including 
machine guns), 10 vehicles and $700,000 in hard cash. The drugs had 
an estimated street value of $2 million.

At a press conference displaying the contraband, authorities declared 
Dandridge and Co. responsible for most of the cocaine and marijuana 
trafficking in Ocala/Marion County over the past year or so. They 
allege that in a typical week the outfit sold about 20 kilograms, or 
roughly 44 pounds, of cocaine throughout the community.

"We have dismantled a huge organization," sheriff's Lt. Lee Sullivan 
told reporters.

While the amount of drugs and weapons and cash was impressive and 
confirmation of big-time crime in our midst, it was a bit unnerving 
when agent Randal Bohman of the Drug Enforcement Administration 
explained the focus of the strike team.

"Our mission is to target organizations, not individuals, on an 
international and national level," he said.

There you have it. When we talk about drug dealing in Ocala/Marion 
County we no longer are simply referring to local criminal 
enterprises. In fact, authorities allege the Dandridge gang received 
most of its shipments from Atlanta and, closer to home, Volusia 
County (Daytona Beach), and they left little doubt the pipeline 
doesn't stop there, nor will their investigation.

So Ocala/Marion County's illegal drug trade has officially gone 
international. That five of the suspects whose names were released 
Wednesday are Mexican supports long-running law enforcement claims 
that the local drug trafficking "has been taken over" by Mexican nationals.

The joint local-state-federal effort that led to the bust is part of 
the the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, 
initiative that the Marion County Sheriff's Office and Ocala Police 
Department has been part of for three years. HIDTA brings together 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Department of 
Law Enforcement, local law enforcement agencies as well as specially 
assigned federal and state prosecutors to target high-volume drug 
operations. Marion County was one of the first mid-sized counties in 
the state to embrace HIDTA, and obviously the marriage is paying off.

Sheriff Ed Dean touted the impact HIDTA has had on local law 
enforcement efforts, saying, "If not for HIDTA, I don't know if we 
could have done what we did today."

While Dean applauds HIDTA and its obvious impact on our community, 
Congress is pondering a Bush administration recommendation to pare 
back the program so its funding can be directed to other political 
priorities. We are puzzled by such a notion, given that effectively 
fighting drug trafficking requires not only national and 
international intelligence, but local and even street-level contacts 
as well. That's why HIDTA works -- it offers law enforcement the best 
of all worlds -- and Congress should not try undo what's working.

International drug links. High intensity drug trafficking. Forty 
pounds of coke per week. In Ocala and Marion County. Growth like that 
our community has been experiencing for a generation is a blessing in 
so many ways. Yet, as Dean and others pointed out Wednesday, drug 
dealing is a business -- big business -- and, like any business, it 
goes where there's a growing market. Hence, illegal drugs are an 
unwelcome growth industry hereabouts.

Dean called the bust a "great day for Ocala/Marion County in terms of 
our war on drugs, and the war continues."

Continues and, we hope, escalates.
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