Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993 TAG: 9304290083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The name comes from playgrounds where toddlers swing and young men gather for basketball - and drug deals.
Basketball is the common denominator linking many of the suspects in a federal sweep of street drug dealers that came to light this week in a series of arrests and unsealed indictments.
Steve Baer, the federal prosecutor handling the case, says "several of the players" in the drug deals "networked though basketball courts."
Through those contacts, Baer says, the players set up a loosely connected operation with cocaine suppliers in Paterson, N.J., and New York City.
In some cases, court documents say, the drugs - kilogram loads at a time - arrived in Roanoke by mail, occasionally Express Mail. Payments went out in large cash transfers wired through Western Union.
The dealers used fake names and wired the cash to people using false names or code names. Such transfers nearly are impossible to trace, federal authorities say, because there is no federal requirement that identification be provided by people who wire money or by those who receive it.
So far 13 people have been arrested in Roanoke. Nine others have been indicted and were being sought. In addition, two Roanoke men linked to the investigation have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., on charges of conspiracy to import four kilos of cocaine from the Caribbean island of Aruba.
One disturbing aspect of the investigation, Baer says, is the number of family members and friends who willingly helped the dealers launder their profits. They did that in part, records show, by putting vehicles bought with drug money in their names.
Those family members and friends may be targeted as the investigation continues, Baer says. There is a "strong possibility they will get charged," he said.
by CNB