Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The arrests of a teen-age girl Monday night and a New York woman Tuesday night - the two biggest crack busts in Roanoke history - come at a time when city police are apparently focusing on drug smuggling at the airport.
In both cases, the suspects were arrested after they stepped off commercial flights with large amounts of crack hidden in their clothing.
Police declined to comment Wednesday on the scope of the investigation, except to say that it is continuing.
But the arrests seem to be part of a concentrated crack eradication effort at the airport. In both cases, vice officers had obtained information through lengthy investigations and were waiting for the suspects when their flights arrived in Roanoke.
While declining to comment on the specifics of the arrests, special drug prosecutor Jeff Rudd said the amount of crack seized "certainly indicates that the airport is being used to import cocaine into Roanoke."
Until they were approached by police in the airport's concourse, both suspects had apparently smuggled the contraband through security checkpoints equipped with metal detectors and X-ray machines and boarded the airplanes unquestioned.
But despite the ease with which crack can be smuggled into Roanoke on airplanes, authorities say there was no apparent breach of security by the airport or USAir.
"The issue of drug enforcement is beyond the jurisdiction of the airport operation," said Jacqueline Shuck, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Airport.
Shuck and Susan Young, a spokeswoman at USAir's Arlington headquarters, both said that airline officials would notify police if they had reason to believe a passenger was carrying drugs.
But the problem with crack - a dense, purified form of cocaine - is that it comes in small amounts and can be easily hidden.
In the case of the 15-year-old from the Bronx arrested Monday night, police said the girl had stuffed the drugs into her panty hose and was wearing a loose-fitting coat that extended halfway to her knees.
In such a situation, there is little to put airline officials on guard.
"We don't have the ability to search for that type of substance or the mandate to do so," Young said. "Our main security concern is for the safety of the airplane and the passengers."
Since crack first began to show up in Roanoke two years ago, authorities have detected a pattern in which the drug is often brought in from big cities such as New York. Because Roanoke has a more limited drug market, enterprising dealers can capitalize on higher prices for crack.
By focusing on the airport, police are more likely to find major drug shipments at the point of entry.
In Tuesday night's airport bust, 23-year-old Sandra Mise of Flushing, N.Y., was accused of carrying $110,000 worth of crack when she was arrested.
Authorities would say only that Mise had the drugs "concealed on her person" and declined to elaborate. Police also declined to say where the woman's flight had originated.
In that case, the 15-year-old girl was charged with bringing 12 ounces, about $90,000 worth, of crack through the airport. She had arrived in Roanoke on a one-way flight from La Guardia airport in New York.
Although police have seized larger amounts of powder cocaine in Roanoke, the quantities involved in the two airport arrests are significant because crack is a more concentrated and potent form of the drug.
In many cases, drug dealers employ "mules," or couriers, who transport the drugs from city to city for cash. A common tactic by dealers is to recruit juveniles for the job and assure them that if they're caught, they won't be punished seriously because of their age.
But in the case of the 15-year-old arrested Monday night, that may not be true. Rudd says he plans to ask that the girl be tried as an adult in Circuit Court.
And even if the "mules" are not at the top of the drug hierarchy, Rudd asserts they are highly culpable and should be held accountable.
"These people may not be the Colombian connection, but they certainly bridge the gap between Roanoke and places like New York," he said.
"And if you can take down the bridge, you can't cross the water."
by CNB