THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270635
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
With an unusual disregard for secrecy, local and state law enforcement officials held a press conference late Thursday to announce one of the biggest drug sweeps ever held in Northeastern North Carolina - before it happened.
Then, nearly 50 undercover police, deputy sheriffs and state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents piled into vans and police cars and began carrying out carefully rehearsed raids in two crime-plagued sections of Elizabeth City. The sweeps started as darkness was setting in and were expected to last until late into the night.
The number of suspects rounded up and booked will not be known until this morning, officials said.
``We're going to send a message to law breakers that it will no longer be comfortable for them in Elizabeth City,'' Police Chief Herman L. Bunch Jr., told news and television reporters before the sweeps began.
Bunch preserved a degree of secrecy by immediately putting the reporters and photographers in a special vehicle that followed the raids as they developed.
Bunch said the sweeps were part of ``Operation Response,'' an undercover drug campaign that began in September of 1994 ``in the high-crime areas around Shepard and Cale streets and Bell and Harney streets'' in Elizabeth City.
``These two areas are open-air drug markets,'' said Elizabeth City Police Capt. W.G. Williams, who worked with Bunch to coordinate the raids.The drug activity in the two neighborhoods ``spawns crime throughout Elizabeth City, including robberies, serious assaults and even rape,'' said Williams. ``The combined efforts between the N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents, the Elizabeth City Police Department and the area sheriffs departments will be the beginning of the end for the criminal element in these communities and Elizabeth City as a whole.''
Weeks of planning preceded the raids. Working with Bunch were Roland W. Dale, director of the ALE division of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, and Albemarle sheriffs. Robert Mauldin, a Dare County Alcohol Beverage Control enforcement officer, was among the officers who gathered evidence for the raids.
Nearly 25 Elizabeth City police officers - half of the total raiding force - participated. The entire operation was under the supervision of Elizabeth City Police Lt. Joe Tade and Sgt. R. J. Sawyer.
``It's difficult for local law enforcement to assemble this many undercover agents,'' Bunch said, ``and without them it's impossible to prepare a sweep of this magnitude.''
Bunch estimated that it would cost between $50,000 and $60,000 for a small city to equal the force assembled Thursday evening.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST DRUG RAIDS by CNB