Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2005
Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright: 2005 Courier-Post
Contact:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826
Author: Renee Winkler
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

POLICE: DRUG SALES OCCUR ON ABOUT 150 CORNERS

Jurors in an ongoing drug conspiracy trial on Tuesday heard facts about the 
establishment and control of illegal drug markets in Camden.

The testimony of Camden Police Lt. John Scott Thompson formed the basis of 
anticipated testimony that will focus on the composition of street gangs 
the government claims controls drug sales.

Despite teams of federal, state and local investigators, Thompson said, 
there are about 150 active drug corners in Camden that attract buyers 
around the clock.

On trial on charges of using violence to control several North Camden drug 
operations are Bernard Murray, Allen Resto, Lorenzo Hardwick and Jose 
Rodriguez, all of Camden. An indictment charges the four with conspiring to 
murder three men in 2001 to protect their control of drug markets at 5th 
and Grant and 9th and Cedar streets.

Eight other people who were indicted with the men now on trial have pleaded 
guilty to conspiracy charges and many are expected to testify against them.

Today, Joseph Bowen, a senior investigator with the Camden County 
Prosecutor's Office, is expected to testify that gang ties of at least 
three of the defendants date to the early 1990s. That was when, as members 
of the Sons of Malcolm X, they terrorized North Camden with violence that 
included three "test night" killings of pedestrians as part of a gang 
initiation rite, according to pretrial briefs.

Instead of being shattered by arrests and prison terms in the 1990s, Bowen 
will testify, the gang regained the right to sell heroin and cocaine on 
street corners after their release from prison, according to trial briefs 
filed by Assistant U.S. attorneys Kevin T. Smith and Jason Richardson.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler previously denied a request by defense 
attorneys to exclude any reference in testimony to membership in street 
gangs in general and the Sons of Malcolm X in particular.

Bowen is expected to be the first prosecution witness to refer to the gang 
and its tattoos and rituals.

Objecting to the defense attempt to avoid describing the four defendants as 
gang members, Smith said they "would prefer that we call them the flower 
children of North Camden."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth