ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMAC STAFF WRITER
In the latest strike against Roanoke's street market for crack cocaine, police have charged 66 people with selling drugs to an undercover officer who posed as a regular customer.
More than half of the people charged have prior drug-dealing convictions, authorities said.
The arrests culminated an investigation that began in July when residents complained to police about blatant drug dealing in neighborhoods where dealers stand on street corners and hawk their illegal goods to passing motorists.
A grand jury that met Tuesday in Roanoke Circuit Court returned 79 indictments that named 53 people on charges of distributing cocaine. Four juveniles also were charged, and police made an additional nine arrests last month in the closing stages of the investigation.
In additional to charging street dealers, police also targeted the operators of so-called "stash houses," or homes in the areas of open-air crack markets where the dealers hide their supplies. Since August, police have executed search warrants on seven Northwest Roanoke homes and made eight arrests.
The scope of the operation indicates that not only does crack maintain its grip on some inner-city neighborhoods, but many of the dealers are repeat offenders who quickly return to the streets. At least 36 of the people indicted have prior criminal records, most involving drugs, Regional Drug Prosecutor Dennis Nagel said.
"The profits in trafficking crack cocaine are enticing people to enter the drug trade even if they have been previously convicted," said Lt. R.E. Carlisle, who heads the vice bureau of the Roanoke Police Department.
Because most arrests of street dealers have involved hand-to-hand transactions of a single rock of crack, Roanoke judges traditionally have been inclined to impose relatively light prison sentences, in the neighborhood of one to five years, Nagel said.
One reason is that street-savvy dealers make sure they are carrying only a small amount of drugs - thus the reason for the stash houses, where they return after making a sale to resupply. When a first-time offender comes to court charged with distributing a single rock of crack, Nagel said, it's hard for the judge to determine the level of involvement.
That will not be the case with the most recent round of repeat offenders. "We're going to be asking for significantly higher sentences, based on their prior records," Nagel said.
Most of the arrests were made in areas of Northwest and Old Southwest Roanoke that have experienced problems with open-air crack markets.
Police provided the following breakdown of undercover drug sales that led to indictments: 27 were made in the area of the 500 to 1000 blocks of Fairfax Avenue; 22 were made on Lafayette Boulevard and the surrounding area; 14 were made in the 1100 to 2100 blocks of Melrose Avenue; 12 were made in the 500 to 800 blocks of Marshall and Day avenues; seven were made in the Lincoln Terrace housing development; four were made on Chapman Avenue; one was made in the Lansdowne housing development; and one was made in the Indian Village housing development.
Authorities began to make arrests shortly after the grand jury indictments were returned. Carlisle said police hoped to have most of the suspects arrested by late Wednesday night or today.
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