By Jim Sterne
News Editor
At 7 a.m. 150 police officers armed with weapons and warrants made a wake-up call for 21 men between the ages of 18 and 37 at Cabrini Green Housing Development on Friday, Dec. 27. The police used the code name “Candyman” to describe a three month investigation of the drug trafficking operation that operated in plain view at the housing complex.
“These gang bangers operated their business with absolutely no regard for the safety of the children,” said Police Superintendent Terry Hillard. The drug ring operated around the clock seven days a week near two schools and church and took in an estimated $21,000 a day. The offenders face stiffer penalties, if convicted, because they operated near the schools.
Hillard said the operation was another in the growing convictions of the city’s street corner conspiracy initiative that began three years ago. The initiative seeks to shut down open air drug markets that residents report.
The Narcotics and Gang Investigations Section conducts the long term investigations using video surveillance and undercover buys to build tight cases against criminal operatives. Currently, cases have a 98 per cent conviction rate with most offenders serving a minimum of six years in jail.
“As a strategy, making individual arrests for selling narcotics does not attack the problem,” Hillard said. “Taking out an entire organization, from the supplier on down to the sellers, including the lookouts, brings far more permanent relief to communities.”
City workers moved in after police made their arrests and repaired broken lamps, towed away abandoned cars, and baited for rodents. |
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