Pubdate: Mon, 13 Mar 2006
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2006 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PA. COCAINE BUST SHOWS DETROIT KIDS AS SELLERS

Three years ago, drug dealers migrated from Detroit to  New Castle, 
Pa., with bags of powder cocaine in hand.

The goal? To take over the crack cocaine market. And  they succeeded, 
law enforcement officials say -- in  part because they used Detroit 
youths to sell the  drugs.

The dealers, who went by street names such as Moses and  Tone, 
employed as many as 20 workers from Detroit --  some as young as 14 
- -- to peddle.

After a few weeks, the dealers sent the teenagers back  to Detroit 
and brought in a new crop in an effort to  throw off police in the 
western Pennsylvania town.

"We would see new faces," New Castle Police Chief  Thomas Sansone 
said after an investigation resulted in  drug charges against 18 
Detroiters, including one  juvenile, last month. "They'd all give us 
fake names."

Using juveniles to sell drugs is nothing new,  authorities 
acknowledge. In Detroit, Young Boys  Incorporated, or YBI, used 
school-age children to sell  drugs in the 1970s and '80s.

"But the specific use of juveniles rotating from  Detroit to New 
Castle was something much more organized  than we've seen with 
others," said Nils Frederiksen,  spokesman for the Pennsylvania 
Attorney General's  Office.

Two Detroit-based drug rings supplied New Castle's  dealers, 
sometimes cooperating in selling as much as $2  million in crack 
since 2003, authorities said.

But their empires came crashing down when 70 New Castle  and 
Pennsylvania officers closed an investigation and  issued charges 
against 28 people.

Five of the 18 Detroiters are in custody -- including  one of the 
reputed leaders, 39-year-old James (O-Z)  Brooks -- while the others 
are still at large.  Pennsylvania authorities said they think the 
suspects  may have fled back to Detroit.

Several of those facing warrants have criminal records  in Michigan, 
according to the state Department of  Corrections. Brooks, 
32-year-old Shantez Johnson and  36-year-old Darian Hall have served 
time for dealing  cocaine; David Randall, 20, and Andrew Davis, 18, 
have  been convicted of breaking and entering.

Frenzado Snow, 28, who authorities say goes by the  street name Kill, 
was convicted of negligent homicide  in 1997.

Snow, Randall, Hall and Davis are still at large.  Johnson is in custody.

In addition to drug charges, everyone charged faces two  counts of 
participating in a corrupt organization and  one count of criminal conspiracy.

The name of the juvenile charged is not being released.  Police said 
other juveniles couldn't be located or  identified to face charges.

New Castle, across the border from Youngstown, Ohio,  was an easy 
target, officials say: The old mill town  with 28,000 residents has 
been hurting for jobs for  years. Housing prices have suffered and 
unemployment is  rampant, residents say.

"All our big steelworks are gone," said Josephine  McFarland, who has 
lived on North Walnut Street for  more than 50 years. Her home is 
down the street from a  rental house police say was used to sell crack.

Another home nicknamed the Clubhouse, at 922 Carson  St., was the 
Detroit operation's first base, according  to a Pennsylvania grand 
jury investigation. The gang  would cook into crack the cocaine it 
brought from  Detroit and sell the rocks.

Brooks allegedly ran the operation, keeping all of the  home's 
windows and all but one of its doors nailed  shut.

After that house burned down, other New Castle homes  were 
transformed into crack houses -- including the one  near McFarland.

"There were a lot of cars coming and going there," she  said last 
week. "But we didn't realize it was as much  as it was."

Police raided that house on the corner, at 102 N.  Walnut, in January 
and confiscated 700 grams of powder  cocaine and $4,000 from the 
ceiling above the kitchen  and the attic.

Police also found a handgun, a digital scale, baking  soda and empty 
plastic bags -- items used in the  preparation of crack.

"We've had a neighborhood watch in this area,"  McFarland said. 
"We're trying to keep it drug free  right in our little spot. We're 
trying, but it's not  working too good."

Detroit dealers turned a tidy profit by selling  typically $5 rocks 
for up to $20, authorities said. And  they strong-armed themselves 
into power, threatening  buyers who bought crack from non-Detroiters.

Detroit-based dealers have been accused of running  similar 
operations in other small towns.

Police in Huntington, W.Va., are investigating  Detroiters after four 
teenagers were killed last year  in what officials described as 
drug-related shootings.

In New Castle, the dealers used juveniles to help sell  the drugs 
because it's tougher to track down minors,  Sansone said.

The kids and their families back in Detroit likely were  paid 
hundreds of dollars a week for their work.

Juveniles are "expendable and fearless," Sansone said.  "That's 
nothing new to us."

Juveniles also face less time in custody when they're caught.

Detroit Police Lt. James Tolbert said kids aren't used  as often to 
sell drugs in Detroit as they were in the  YBI days. Juveniles 
arrested with narcotics nowadays  are sent straight to youth homes, he said.

But he said he remembers when gang leaders would prey  on low-income 
families, offering them money, nice  clothes and trendy shoes to draw 
them into the  organization.

"Still, there are inherent issues when dealing with  juveniles all 
the time," Tolbert said. "Are they going  to be loyal? Will they get 
lonely and call home? You  don't want to put them in an unfamiliar 
surrounding  unless you can totally brainwash them.

"You can have a very dedicated individual, but that's  one heck of a risk."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom