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Police seek residents’ help in drug
battle
By JOE GORMAN Tribune Chronicle
POSTED: November 28, 2009
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WARREN - For more operations like Wednesday's simultaneous raids of five
houses in Warren, residents of those neighborhoods need to help out, says
Lt. Jeff Orr of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group drug task force.
At one of the homes raided, officers asked neighbors who were outside if
they had seen any criminal activity around. Their answer was sobering, Orr
said.
''They said, 'We don't talk to the police' and went inside,'' Orr said.
Four homes on the northwest and southwest sides of the city, as well as one
on Elm Road N.E., were hit by more than 100 officers from 13 agencies early
Wednesday morning. Police made 15 arrests.
Orr said TAG began looking into the homes, where they say heroin was dealt,
about two to three weeks ago after they were asked to do so by the Warren
Police Department. Investigators found a Detroit connection as they were
working the case, and Orr said the operation in at least two of the homes
was run by the same person.
Past practice indicates that once a group of dealers are gone, another group
from Detroit will come in and try and take their place, Orr said. The only
way to combat that from a law enforcement point of view is to put pressure
on them, and for that, they need the help of residents who see criminal
activity going on in their neighborhoods, he said.
''It's very important for people to call us whenever there's some kind of
strange behavior,'' Orr said.
Outside dealers come to the Mahoning Valley because it is a smaller market,
which allows them to charge more for their product than they could get in
Detroit.
''They have been here for awhile,'' Orr said. ''They can make more money
here than in Detroit.''
Orr said that he thinks in terms of personnel Wednesday's raid is one of the
largest in the county, but he said he's been involved in operations in the
past where more drugs and money were seized.
According to a TAG press release Wednesday, officers seized 600 bindles of
heroin worth $15,000 as well as five firearms, 100 pills and a small amount
of marijuana.
jgorman@tribtoday.com
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