Drug Activity

Amid the oaks and hickories of the Green Ridge State Forest, a 46,000-acre tract of wooded slopes and stream valleys in Western Maryland, all may not be as idyllic and remote from the ills of modern civilization as geography might suggest. In a statement, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said it charged 10 people with drug violations on a recent Saturday. In addition the agency said, during the first nine months of this year, it made more than 120 arrests on charges of illegal drug use. In response, Natural Resources Police said, it will begin an enhanced enforcement effort to curtail illegal drug activity in the forest, about a two-hour drive from the Baltimore area.

A 35-year-old Crofton man is charged with drug possession and distribution and handgun offenses. Michael A. Shepherd was arrested Thursday evening at his home in the 1600 block of Airy Hill Court. After a series of surveillance operations that stemmed from community complaints about illegal drug activities, detectives obtained a search warrant and arrived at the home about 9:30 p.m. Officers recovered two handguns, one of which was stolen, and several rounds of ammunition.

An Anne Arundel County jury handed authorities a victory yesterday in a nine-year war against a squalid Severn compound they said was a drive-through cocaine market, a haven for fencing stolen goods and a setting for cockfights.The circuit Court jury deliberated only 14 minutes before convicting Oscar Mora, 44, of two counts of maintaining a common nuisance for illegal drug activity at his home in the 8200 block of WB&A Road. Each carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

Two men accused of being co-conspirators in a cocaine distribution pipeline that funneled drugs from a violent Mexican cartel to the Baltimore area were convicted by a federal jury Monday. Wade Coats, 45, of Baltimore and Jose Cavazos, 44, of Dallas were convicted of drug conspiracy charges; Coats was also found guilty of a firearms charge. The men, who rejected plea deals, face a maximum sentence of life in prison, and federal authorities expect a sentence of at least 30 years. "This trial illustrated how drugs are imported and distributed throughout the United States," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a telephone interview.

Sylvia Fulwood marches west on East 20th Street, past the men congregating on the front steps of the boarded-up rowhouses, past the bare-chested teen-ager singing out "Five-O" as a police patrol wagon speeds north on Greenmount.Heading toward two vacant houses on 21st Street, she carries a Top 10 list: top 10 nuisances in the East Baltimore-Midway and Barclay neighborhoods.The list identifies abandoned houses where the junkies squat and rental properties where the tenants deal drugs. Under the newly established Community Anti-Drug Assistance Project, Ms. Fulwood plans to lead area residents into court to do something about "nuisance" properties that provide the setting for drug activity and its associated danger and violence.

Westminster officials plan to tap a decade-old state nuisance law to clean up a troubled neighborhood by cracking down on landlords who allow their properties to foster drug trafficking. The law -- which ultimately would allow the city to "padlock" such structures -- provides Westminster with an immediate tool in the revitalization of the Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood. Crime, drug trafficking, housing code violations and vandalism have vexed the area in recent years. A group of government officials, social service agencies, residents and a landlord formed in the spring to come up with a plan to rehabilitate the neighborhood, a several-block area of older homes, apartment buildings and few businesses on the city's west side that borders McDaniel College, formerly known as Western Maryland College.

Standing before an orange billboard in Southwest Baltimore, Mayor Martin O'Malley and police officials unveiled yesterday a new anonymous tip line that they predicted will lead to better investigations of drug dealers. "We've made a lot of progress over the past year in pushing the open-air drug markets off our streets. ... We still have a long way to go," O'Malley said. In addition to changing the phone number to 666-DRUG (410-666-3784), the mayor and police said they are changing how it operates.

Eight months after a deadly gang rivalry erupted in gunfire at a crowded East Baltimore block party, federal authorities said yesterday that 12 men have been charged with running the violent, well-armed drug gang responsible for five city murders, including the Memorial Day shooting that killed one woman. The federal indictment charging members of the East Baltimore gang known as the "Hot Boys" with various narcotics and weapons offenses gave a grim accounting of how members gained respect and intimidated drug trade competitors by gunning down rivals, including the machine-gun killing Nov. 11, 2000, of rival gang member Keith "Bones" Hamlet.

Buoyed for the third year by funds from the state's anti-crime HotSpot program, Columbia's Village of Long Reach has seen tangible results: The once run-down village center is no longer defined by loiterers and poor lighting, and the police satellite station has a full-time staff of four.But just across Tamar Drive, within walking distance of Long Reach High School and the Interfaith Center, is a street residents say continues to be troubled with crime.Howard County police recently began working undercover on Yellowrose Court -- a "hot spot" within the HotSpot -- to stem drug activity and address residents' complaints about everything from breaking and entering to destruction of property.

The Baltimore state's attorney office has filed lawsuits against two East Baltimore property owners as part of an effort to target landlords who allow their buildings to be used for drug activity.Notices were posted at 715 E. Preston St. and 812 N. Chapel St. yesterday afternoon. The notices state that the state's attorney will seek court orders requiring the landlords to evict tenants and submit plans to the court that will ensure the properties no longer will be used for drug activity. Officials said they plan to target 200 properties in the Police Department's Eastern District by July 12.The suits were filed under the state's Nuisance Abatement Law, which gives courts broad authority to order landlords to eliminate drug activity on their property.

Amid the oaks and hickories of the Green Ridge State Forest, a 46,000-acre tract of wooded slopes and stream valleys in Western Maryland, all may not be as idyllic and remote from the ills of modern civilization as geography might suggest. In a statement, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said it charged 10 people with drug violations on a recent Saturday. In addition the agency said, during the first nine months of this year, it made more than 120 arrests on charges of illegal drug use. In response, Natural Resources Police said, it will begin an enhanced enforcement effort to curtail illegal drug activity in the forest, about a two-hour drive from the Baltimore area.

Ten people were arrested, and heroin and more than $15,000 in counterfeit money were seized, after officers chased drug suspects to a West Baltimore home Thursday morning, a police spokesman said. The bust netted more than $22,000 in cash, including the counterfeit money, said Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He refused to release the names of the suspects, saying that the U.S. Secret Service was involved and that the investigation is continuing. About 6:45 a.m., members of the Central District operations squad saw a gold Pontiac Grand Prix, which they believed to be involved in drug activity, in the 600 block of McCulloh St. When men and women were observed engaging in a suspected drug activity, the officers attempted a traffic stop and the vehicle sped off. Officers followed the car into the Western District, where its occupants ran into a home in the 2300 block of Avalon Ave. in the Parkview/Woodbrook neighborhood.

A man was shot by city police yesterday morning after he reached for an officer's handgun during a drug stop, police said. Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said three officers on dirt bikes were in the 700 block of Lennox St. in the Reservoir Hill area about 10:45 a.m. when they approached an apartment complex and stopped to interview a man who they believed was involved in drug activity. Police said the man began to fight with the officers, and the altercation moved into an apartment stairwell.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is expected to decide by Aug. 22 whether a North Avenue liquor store that authorities say is a haven for violence and drug dealing will be closed for a year. Police officials held an administrative hearing yesterday for Linden Bar and Liquors, which was notified last month that it might be closed under the city's new public nuisance law because of criminal activity in and around the store. During the hearing, police submitted into evidence nine incidents of violence and drug activity at the store, highlighting a July killing inside Linden Liquors that was recorded by the store's security camera.

Aberdeen will bulldoze one dilapidated house and burn down two others today in an attempt by city officials to transform the character of a crime-riddled neighborhood. The homes are in the 400 block of Washington St., an area city officials once called the epicenter of crime and drug activity. The razing of the houses is the first phase of an effort to make way for three new residences for working families. "If this doesn't change this street, I don't know what will," said Joann Blewett, director of Harford's Habitat for Humanity, which has purchased the sites and will build the three houses.

Stepping up efforts to curb drug activity throughout Annapolis, the city council is backing a House of Delegates bill that would allow the entire city to be designated as a drug-free zone with stiffer penalties for convicted dealers. The council unanimously passed the resolution, which was sponsored by Alderwoman Julie Stankivic, the Ward 6 independent, on Monday night. It expands on a council resolution last year that supported letting the city classify areas around school bus stops, Head Start facilities and public housing properties as drug-free zones.

Four people were arrested on drug charges last week at the Stevens Forest Apartments in Columbia's Oakland Mills village as part of an undercover investigation, Howard County Police said.More arrests are likely as police continue attempts to crack down on drug activity in the complex, said Sgt. Steven Keller, police spokesman. The Thursday night arrests are the result of at least the fourth raid since police opened a satellite office in the complex in April 1993.Arrested in the latest raids were Frederick M. Fields, 41; Vickie M. Fields, 41; Marquise D. Colleton, 22; and Marcella M. Hayes, 27, police said.

Numerous complaints about drug activity in an East Baltimore neighborhood led to the arrest last night of three suspects -- ages 13, 14 and 16 -- in the 1800 block of Regester Street.Seized at the scene were $300 in cash and 37 vials of powdered cocaine -- nine of them hidden in a tennis ball and the rest in a window of a vacant house, police said.In a yard, officers found 43 vials believed to contain cocaine residue.Eastern District officers charged the youths with possession of cocaine and with the intent and conspiracy to distribute it, andreleased them to the custody of their parents.

Four people charged with being involved in the drug trade in the Stillmeadows and Pioneer City neighborhoods are scheduled to appear today in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, and 12 additional suspects are to go before county judges for drug-related offenses in those West County neighborhoods in the coming weeks. The cases represent the fruits of a broad police effort that began in March to crack down on illegal drug activity - and associated crimes - in those neighborhoods. "We know there is drug activity over there, which contributes to shootings and assaults," said Lt. David D. Waltemeyer, a spokesman for the county police.

A man suspected of drug activity was injured yesterday after leaping over a Jones Falls Expressway retaining wall near Cold Spring Lane to avoid arrest and landing in the falls some 60 feet below the highway, authorities said. The suspect - described as conscious and alert - was pulled from the water by firefighters reaching the site from Clipper Mill Road, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a city Fire Department spokesman. The unidentified man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, as was an unnamed police officer who sustained a shoulder injury in the incident, according to preliminary accounts.