Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994 TAG: 9402110081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Most of the suspects were charged with distribution of crack cocaine, according to Lt. B.S. Lugar of the Roanoke Police Department.
The grand jury indictments, which were the culmination of several months of undercover sales to police informants, were the latest in what has become a regular assault on open-air crack markets.
"It's just a continuing approach where we're trying to keep the pressure on the street-level dealers and the mid-level dealers," Lugar said.
A grand jury that met Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court indicted 65 people on about 80 charges. Authorities asked that news of the indictments be withheld until most of the suspects could be arrested.
Some of the hand-to-hand street sales were recorded on videotape, Lugar said.
Most of the drug deals were made in areas known for cocaine sales - Melrose Avenue, Caru Apartments, Lafayette Boulevard, Melrose Park and 11th Street Northwest.
A few people were charged with selling imitation drugs, small pieces of wax or soap that look like the white rocks of crack that usually are sold one at a time.
The sellers of wax and soap face the same punishment as those accused of selling the real thing - up to 40 years in prison.
The effort to hit street-level dealers complements a continuing program by federal authorities, called Operation Roundball, that is focusing on the most significant dealers.
"It's an effort to go after them from the top to the bottom," Lugar said.
by CNB