DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220597

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON 

        STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   53 lines

POLICE CHIP AWAY AT SOUTH SUFFOLK'S DRUG TRADE STORE OWNER ACCUSES, OF SELLING COCAINE STASHED IN SNACK BAGS.

Doritos were selling fast at $10 a 1-ounce bag, each with a small amount of cocaine tucked inside, police Sgt. S.W. Smith said Friday.

The brisk drug trade at Bond's Grocery on Spruce Street was brazen, ``right under our noses,'' said Smith, head of the special investigations team.

The police had been patiently watching for months, until they could catch the dealer red-handed.

Thursday just before 8 p.m., investigators raided the store and arrested the owner, John L. Bond, in what they called a major sweep of the Spruce Street drug trade.

Bond, 40, of the 100 block of Lewis Ave., was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He was being held in Western Tidewater Regional Jail without bond Friday.

The arrest capped a monthlong blitz, with public works, public utilities and inspections departments cooperating to clean up the neighborhood on the south side of Suffolk - just a block from the Planters Peanut factory.

Investigators C.A. Duck and J.A. Coleman, who led the drug investigation, confiscated about 3 ounces of cocaine - worth about $6,300 on the street - and wads of 20- and 50-dollar bills that totaled $1,100.

Electronic equipment - monitoring devices and walkie talkies - was also seized. No weapons were found.

The cocaine was wrapped in paper - different colors for differing sizes and prices, officers said. The pink packets cost more than $10. The white one cost $10. The brown packets were $5. The packets - taped shut - were dropped through small razor cuts made in bags of Doritos or Lay's potato chips.

On the street, a 0.10 gram is worth $10, Smith said.

The arrest was bittersweet for the special investigations unit members after Tuesday's arrest of one of their team, Darien L. Brannen, on a federal charge of extortion. Brannen, 31, is accused of recruiting a former drug dealer to resume the trade with a promise to provide confidential information on drug investigations in return for a share of the profit.

The officers felt betrayed, Smith said.

``We needed to restore our faith in each other,'' he said.

Spruce Street residents watched the raid from their porches as police carted crates of evidence from the store.

Cooperation from city departments and Spruce Street residents had been essential to the officers' success, Smith said.

``If it goes like this every time, we'll always have this kind of success,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: John L. Bond is charged with possession of cocaine

with intent to distribute. Police found paper pakets of cocaine that

had been tucked into bags of Doritos and Lay's potatoe chips. KEYWORDS: DRUGS ILLEGAL COCAINE ARREST

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