THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 28, 1995 TAG: 9501280239
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
Elated Elizabeth City police and area alcohol law enforcement officers tallied their take of drug suspects Friday after one of the largest anti-crime sweeps in the city's history.
``We picked up 45 of the 60 people we were looking for, and this will put a real crimp in the drug traffic around here,'' said Lt. Joseph Tade, an Elizabeth City police officer who helped supervise the Thursday night raids.
Most of the sweeps were in the Shepard/Cale and Bell/Harney street areas, identified by Police Chief Herman Bunch Jr. as ``open-air drug markets.''
Numerous complaints of crime in the two districts caused Bunch to call in a large contingent of N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents to help local undercover agents make the arrests in a series of simultaneous moves.
About 50 lawmen from the city and surrounding areas participated. The raiders left police headquarters after a briefing and simultaneously descended on the drug-dealers' haunts shortly after dark. Special teams processed the suspects.
``We had 68 indictments naming 60 suspected drug dealers,'' Tade said, ``and we failed to find 15 of them. Still, it's a good start. We're going to keep up the pressure.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARRESTS by CNB