◆ SpookStack

ow: way pope hates. * eer arta eRe eee ett | OITas saat itt at hee EON not even 24 veurs old and he has two Mer- - cedeses and a Rolex watch.” Says Bill Blanco. another gang specialist in Miami: “Who you are is dictated by the gold chains. the Rolex. the car. And every- | Cellular tele- * phones are more than decoration. of course: they are extremely useful in the | body's got a car phone.’ meliic 1 drug trade. Beepers. which are equally useful to dealers. are now so common — among ghetto teenagers thar Los Angeles | public schools have banned them. Sume gang veterans sav the cocaine trade in south-central L_A. is controlled by ' cans and the street gangs.” Levant 15 to 20 0.G.’s—an assessment that is shared by knowledgeabie law-enforcement ; officials. Deputy Chief Levant, who com- : mands a newly formed LAPD unit that | nmaiordr specializes in major drug trafickers among the street gangs. s says 3 to 100 gangs are volved in cocaine distribu- aetival now activery inv tion. Some of these groups. he says, now : have sales totaling up to 31 million a week. “There is a link between the South Ameri- That link—the strategic nexus bet the Colombian cocaine carte! and s: level distribution in the United State becoming increasingly visible to inves tors in southern California and elsew There is little question thar some : drug traffickers have now establishe rect relationships, with: top-level Coic an smuggiers. According to Los An. County officials. the Colombians are willing to sell drugs to O.G.’s and rolle A Jamaican invasion in West Virginia Wy its tidy clapboard : houses and neat apple ° : and peach orchards on Jand : George Washington surveyed’ centuries ago, Martinsburg, W.Va. (population: 13.000), seems far from the mean streets normally patrolled by drug gangs. But over the last three years. an invasion of Jamaican drug dealers has turned the home of the Moun- tain State Apple Harvest Fes- tival intoa mecca for cocaine. The Jamaicans first arrived in Martinsburg as migrant workers to pick apples and peaches at harvest time. but many stayed on to peddle coke and crack. Hundreds squeezed into small apart- ments in a poor neighborhood called “the Hill” and trans- formed several blocks near the center of town into an open-air drug supermar- | ket. Supplied by couriers | shuttling between Jamaican gangs in Washington, Miami ; and New York, as many as } from picking apples to selling coke and’ ‘crack: A downtown street. ina Martinsburg home “WALLY MeNAMEE—NEWSWEEK 50 dealers could be found brazenly hawking dope in broad daylight, just three ' blocks from the police sta- | tion. At times business was so | brisk that intersections were . clogged with traffic; many cars bore out-of-state license _ plates. The customers “were all ethnic groups. age groups ‘ and every profession.” says police chief Jack Strobridze. “They came riding up on cedes-Benz cars. trucks.’ : skateboards. on bikes. in Mer- - in pickup _ ” Stores in the region | mysteriously sold out of vita- ; min B: police soon figured out : that dealers were using it to | “cut” the cocaine. Then the : Jamaicans introduced crack ! -—and started a run on plastic - food-storage bags used to | package thedrug. Martinsburg’s 28-man_po- lice force carried out small raids but were overwhelmed by the dealers. In a region i where one or two murders per cides. all drug related. oc- curred in 18 months as rival _ ‘ see her husband crouche Cases of venereal disease shot : dealers fought for control. up as prostitutes imported by the dealers worked the . streets. At local schools. stu- dents hired as drug couriers strutied around in expensive Nike jogging: suits and goid chains. intimidating class- mates and. teachers. A police raid of a Jamaican dealer's house turned up crude photo- graphs of a former homecom- ing queen posing half nude. pieces of crack lying about her. According to law-en- forcement authorities, she later gave birth to a baby fa- : thered by the dealer. Needles and knives: Residents were virtually besieged in their homes. Theresa Sham- burg was unable to leave her drivew ay without being of- fered “crack, cocaine or reef- ‘ er” by pushers. Discarded year was the norm, 20 homi- : 24 NEWSWEEK; MARCH 28, L238 needles and knives littered _ her front vard. She called po- - _ov Charles Town. 16 miles awav “. But many Jamaican dealer MARTINSBURG POLICE DEPAREME: XT PHOTO lice but they were unable - drive away the dealers. Or night. when the Jamaicar outside became particular! raucous. Shamburg woke t with a shotgun in one han and a pistol in the other. grin lv waiting for a break-in. Under ‘pressure from tk community, local _ polic asked the federal authoritie for help. In fall 1986 some 20 agents from a special feder: drug task force and focai pr lice raided 26 drug dens. a: resting 35 dealers and sei: ing a cache of high-powere: weapons. Police also found : “hit list” with the names co local judges and law-enforce ment officials. The suspect. arrested insisted the name: were targeted only for a mys tical curse by Jamaican witc! ’ doctors. Even so, three count: magistrates began carryin; guns for self-protection. Street action: The raid pusher the most blatant dealers of the streets—at least for : while. Much of the street ac tion moved down the road tc have kept upa flourishing un derground trade in Martins. burg. On warm days, Theres: Shamburg once again see: dealers congregating across: the street. The Shamburg: will not wait to see what hap: pens next. Afterthree years o: trying. they have finally found: an out-of-town buyer fo: their home. They are moving to a house in the country, bu: Shamburgsuspectsthereisne escape. She saves: “I reall. don’t thing i 10s safe anywuers anymore.” Maek Mitces ca Martusturs