‘Crack’: Police Task Force Struggles Against Avalanche

Like so many stuffed heads, the snapshots tacked to the wall of the police station in Southeast San Diego trace both the triumphs of officers and the changing nature of their prey. Pinned to the cork bulletin board are photographs of the spoils: bags of marijuana, balloons of heroin, piles of pills, bundles of cash, and an arsenal of handguns and automatic weapons.

But toward the bottom of the board, the kind of trophies begin to change and almost every photo is of the ivory-colored chips known as rock cocaine.

A year ago, rock cocaine--or “crack”--was almost unheard-of around downtown and Southeast San Diego.

But in the last eight months, crack has effectively eclipsed PCP and marijuana as the drug of choice in those areas. Crack dealers have managed to carve out a market larger than earlier drugs ever enjoyed, and cars from upscale North County communities line up on the streets to make buys, according to police.

When they pull up at selected street corners, cars are rushed at by a half dozen young men who hold samples of the $25 and $50 “rocks” up to the windows.

In addition, police say that scattered throughout the Southeast community are numerous “rock” houses where cocaine purchasers can procure even larger quantities of the drug.

The rush of drug activity has prompted complaints from Southeast San Diego residents, who last Thursday met with Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Police Chief Bill Kolender to describe how their neighborhoods were being overrun by crack dealers.

Feuds between rival crack dealers and the need for crack users to feed their habits have increased the number of robberies and violent crime in the Southeast, police and residents say. Police add, however, that they have no statistics to reflect how many crimes are caused by the crack trade.

During last week’s meeting, John Davis, who lives on the 4900 block of Ocean View Boulevard, said that he now hears more gunfire in his neighborhood “than on a slow night in Vietnam.”

Another Southeast resident said that she sees limousines making deliveries of rock cocaine to the house across the street every night.

Public pressure prompted the Police Department to establish a task force to deal with the crack problem. It began operation on Aug. 1.

Drawn from patrol officers in the Southeast and Central divisions, the 24-member force has been assigned the task of attempting to contain sale of rock cocaine.

In the four days beginning last Thursday, the task force raided three rock houses, confiscated 11 ounces of cocaine, made 3 felony and 21 misdemeanor arrests, and conducted 68 field interrogations.

But despite the added pressure, police say the sale of crack continues virtually unchecked.

On Friday afternoon, eight officers at the Southeast substation heard Lt. Randy Nisleit, leader of the crack task force, outline how they would spend the night conducting “high-visibility” operations against retail dealers. Nisleit suggested some changes in their strategy after reviewing the results of a similar operation the week before.

“What we’re hearing from the neighbors is that when we come in and make some busts the majority of the dealers escape and within 10 minutes after we leave they’re out on the streets selling the rock again,” Nisleit told the officers.

“What we want to do is to hit them repeatedly. I want you to pull back for 20 minutes and then hit them again. Give them the message that we’re a constant presence.”

Of the dozen rocks that were seized and suspects arrested the night before, Nisleit observed: “The numbers are good, but they could be a lot better.”

His comments brought a sharp reply from one officer: “Right! Scalps, bodies, drugs! You got it.”

After the meeting, the crack team took to the streets. Officer James W. Boyd and his partner, Brian Szymonik, worked in the Southeast for two years before being assigned to combat cocaine trafficking. On Friday they directed other officers in raids on known hot spots of the crack trade.

While finding places where drugs are sold is easy, apprehending dealers with drugs in their possession can be next to impossible. Because rock cocaine is so concentrated--a dime-sized chip brings $50--and because the high that it produces lasts less than 20 minutes, it is easy for both dealers and users to avoid being caught with the drug in their pockets or in their systems.

“With PCP you can smell it on them and the objective symptoms can be detected for hours after the drug is taken,” said Boyd. “Crack wears off after half an hour at the very longest and has no smell that we can detect.”

When police raid a street corner where crack is sold, dealers often stuff the drugs into drain pipes and throw them onto nearby roofs. Sometimes, they swallow the rocks, Boyd said, adding, “Unless they’re really dumb, it’s real hard to get someone with the rocks still on them.

“With crack, someone can be holding thousands of dollars in the palm of their hand and ditch it instantaneously. We had one guy who swallowed 30 rocks and then passed out while we were running a warrant check on him.”

The first spot on Friday evening’s itinerary is a site referred to by police as “The Crack”--an apartment complex at Ocean View Boulevard and Milbrae Street where drugs sales are brisk night and day, according to Szymonik.

“A year ago this corner was one of the hottest spots around for PCP,” Boyd said. “Now the guys we busted six or eight months ago for PCP are getting out of jail, coming back to The Crack and going right into selling rock cocaine.”

There are many reasons why the commerce in crack has surpassed the other drugs on the street, Boyd said. For one, the euphoric, short-lived high that rock cocaine produces for those who smoke it is more intense than other available drugs. While crack users do not exhibit the same violent behavior that PCP induces, the craving for the drug can cause cocaine addicts to forget everything else to constantly renew their highs, Boyd said.

“We had one female who was doing $4,000 a month,” he said. “Another man lost his home, his car and business in order to keep buying crack.

“These aren’t rich people, but they’re people who were living comfortably and then suddenly find they’ve lost everything they had. They’re thrown out on the street by the rock.”

Dealers prefer to sell crack because of the large sums of money they can make from from selling the drug.

“If you sell someone one sherm stick (a PCP cigarette) you get $7, and they’ll be high all day. If you sell someone a $25 rock they’ll be back for more half an hour later,” Boyd said.

The newest drug to hit the streets is “shamrock,” also known as “batman” and “primo.” It is a piece of rock cocaine that has been dipped in PCP and it produces a high that combines the characteristics of both drugs.

As his patrol car approached The Crack on Friday, Boyd fingered a shotgun mounted in the front seat. The first pass of The Crack yielded one man carrying a concealed handgun, but no drugs. The officers then decided to hit another favored haunt for dealers, an apartment complex on Ozark Street.

Because many of the dealers regularly monitor the police radio frequencies, Boyd spoke in code as he directed patrol cars into the area on Ozark Street. To cut off escapes, he directed marked police cars to converge on the target from several directions.

Two blocks away, Szymonik pulled to the curb to wait for other squad cars to move into position. A blue BMW driven by a man with sulfur-yellow rasta braids cruised by and his passengers pointed to the officers and laughed.

“He’s dealing the rock,” said Boyd. “BMWs, Mercedes, low-slung trucks--those are the autos that your dealer likes to drive, and there’s no one else around here that can afford them.”

Once all the patrol cars were in place, Szymonik stepped on the accelerator and the patrol car raced down the street. Rather than approach the targeted address directly, Szymonik pulled up in the street behind the apartment complex and waited to catch the dealers who were flushed out by the other officers.

Suspect Caught

When a lanky man in worn clothes bolted around the corner and spotted Szymonik, he dropped a glass pipe--or “shooter.” (The pipe, four inches long and the diameter of a pencil, is the favored means for smoking crack. The rock is placed on a pad of steel wool at one end of the pipe and then heated with a lighter or wooden splint. When the cocaine crystal vaporizes, it is inhaled, producing an instant high.)

The man, whose wallet contained a razor blade and a wooden splint but no identification, claimed to be visiting from Louisiana and living out of a trailer. He said his name was Lynn Simon.

“I was just looking for my little brother to make sure he don’t get mixed up in this stuff,” he told the officers.

“I know you’re lying to me, and if you are, that’s a misdemeanor,” Szymonik said, obviously enjoying the game despite the grim expression on his face. “I’m not going to play the name game with you, so tell me the truth.”

Police say one of their greatest problems is identifying the dealers they apprehend. Typically, dealers carry no identification and supply the officers with a steady stream of aliases and misinformation.

“The average cop on patrol, he won’t bother to spend hours getting the name out of someone he picks up without ID. But I’m more persistent,” Szymonik said during a break in his interrogation. “It can take me up to six hours on the computer, but there was only one time I didn’t get an ID.”

After 10 minutes of interrogation, Szymonik ordered the man to get into the patrol car. The man had given three dates of birth.

“He’s going in as John Doe,” said Szymonik. “He doesn’t know his real name.”

The rock cocaine trade in San Diego is controlled by several groups, according to Boyd. At the street level, dealers are usually drawn from the two youth gangs that dominate Southeast, the Crips and the Pirus. Each gang is divided further into smaller neighborhood groups.

Gang members identify themselves by the color of their clothing--royal blue for Crips and bright red for Pirus.

Cuban immigrants, whom police say operate many of San Diego’s rock houses, tend to be the most violent and the most heavily armed of all the dealers, Boyd said, adding, “They don’t make up the majority of the traffic, but sometimes it seems like they do. Last week we busted a Cuban street dealer who was carrying a sawed-off shotgun and a 9-millimeter handgun in a plastic bag.”

In addition to arming themselves, dealers often fortify the rock houses with iron bars on windows and steel plating on doors. Although it has yet to be used, an 11-ton vehicle has been put at the disposal of the crack task force for use in penetrating fortified houses.

At rock houses, crack is often passed through a minute slot carved in the bottom of a boarded window. Officers who have raided the homes say that crack dealers keep their merchandise in the bathroom so they can quickly flush the drugs down the toilet during a police raid.

Dealers will often keep a “rock house” in operation for a week or two before moving on when they suspect police have located them, officers say.

Because it can take two days to get a warrant and because the dealers monitor police radio channels constantly, police say the houses are often deserted by the time officers get there.

Some landlords may be unaware that they are leasing to drug dealers, Szymonik said.

“We had one woman who had rented 13 houses to be used as crack houses,” he said. “She’d come in with her child, rent the house under an alias, and then turn it over to the dealers.”

According to Boyd, the majority of the crack sold in San Diego is processed in Long Beach and driven down by distributors each day.

In the past year, however, dealers from Los Angeles have begun to move in on the San Diego retail market.

“We’re seeing a lot of people coming down here to deal--especially L.A. Crips,” Boyd said. “Because the market has gotten so tight up there, people are coming to San Diego and running the local dealers out.”

Dealers Battle

Inter-gang warfare is one of the few things that has managed to slow the sale of crack, even temporarily. A few weeks ago one dealer shot another near Ozark Street in a dispute over drugs, Boyd said.

“After the shooting the whole neighborhood was swarming with police and homicide detectives, but five hours after they left, crack was being sold again,” Boyd said.

Two blocks away, on Gloria Street, Boyd pointed to the charred remains of a second-story apartment: “The brother of the guy who got shot was a big-time dealer from L.A. The next day he came down and firebombed a house and a car. He put out the word that there would be no traffic on Ozark until the guy who killed his brother was found. It seemed to be the only thing that could actually bring the rock trade to a halt.”

At police headquarters, Szymonik took all the information that the prisoner had given him and fed it into the computer, searching for a clue as to his real identity.

“Nobody is a complete liar. They’ll always give you something that’s true and then you try to build on it,” he said.

As the sun went down, a dozen patrol cars filled with prisoners were packed into the central courtyard outside the headquarters building.

“I was just down here to go on a date with a girl I met up in L.A.,” said a man who was taken into custody during a roundup by the crack team Friday night. “I was hanging around while she went to get some chicken and these guys arrest me. I’m never coming back to this town!”

“Is that a promise?” asked Officer Beth Mohr.

“It’s a promise. You couldn’t drag me back here,” said the man with mock solemnity.

Mohr is not a crack team member but a patrol officer in Southeast who said she tries to harry dealers between radio calls. “It almost seems futile, since even if you find something on them they’ll be out on the streets by the end of the week,” she said.

Asked whether the supply of dealers might ever be exhausted, Mohr replied: “I suppose that in a poverty-stricken neighborhood you’ll always find someone who is willing to make $10,000 a week selling drugs.”

The payoff for those dealing in crack ranges from $100 a day for the 14-year-olds hired as lookouts up to thousands of dollars a day for those who sell at the busier street corners, according to Boyd. While some of the dealers put all their money back in the glass pipe, others drive fancy cars and deck themselves with jewelry.

‘Pyramid System’

“It works on the pyramid system, just as if you were selling for Avon,” said Mohr. “If you work hard and have initiative, you move up the ladder. It’s the old American success story.”

Until other opportunities open up to earn money legitimately, it is doubtful that increased policing will bring the crack trade under control, she said.

“I’m sure that the drug trade up in La Jolla almost keeps up with what you see in the Southeast,” said Mohr. “The only difference is that they’re upper-middle class people who have enough money to buy drugs without committing robberies and who don’t have to go to a street corner to buy them.”

After completing the arrest forms, Mohr turned to her partner and asked: “You see what I put for ‘Occupation’?”

“Sales?”

“Yeah. I figure that’s pretty accurate.”

After sending the prisoner to County Jail downtown in another patrol car, Boyd and Szymonik cruised out toward Southeast.

After another pass at The Crack--it yielded no drugs--the task force converged on another cocaine hot spot in the area around 53rd Street, and Naranja Street and Groveland Drive.

As the patrol cars pull up at Naranja, young men scattered in all directions. But within minutes, police had half a dozen sitting on the pavement or with their hands on the hoods of the patrol cars. In a patch of lawn where two of the men had been standing, an officer discovered a plastic bag containing two ivory-colored crystals worth $25 and $50.

Because this is Crips territory, all of the young men wear bright blue jackets or caps. Two of them carry radio beepers by which they can be paged by suppliers or customers. They are the young professionals of the crack trade.

One man with shiny, oiled ringlets wore three thick gold chains around his neck and two gold watches on the same wrist. His wallet was stuffed with $20 bills but no identification, and he had in one pocket the keys to a sports car that was parked nearby.

A woman who standing nearby approached the police officer and asked for the keys, claiming that the car actually belonged to her boyfriend.

“We’ll sort out all these questions soon enough,” the officer responded.

Reason for Pager

Back at the patrol car, the owner of one of the pagers was explaining how the device had been given to him by his brother “ ‘cause he always had trouble calling me in for dinner.”

Although it appeared that most of the neighborhood had gathered to watch the show, the onlookers were reluctant to say whether drugs were sold in the area.

“I may not like to see these kids doing drugs, but I like it less that they come in arresting these kids,” said one woman.

But other residents professed support for the Police Department’s efforts.

Joe Johnson, after watching police drag two men from a gardening shed behind his house on 54th Street, said crack sales have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the neighborhood.

“It used to be really quiet and safe here until the dealers started hanging around here about two months ago,” said Johnson, who owns five houses in the area.

Those neighbors who claim to resent police intrusions “are either lying or stupid,” he said.

Asked whether he was afraid of retaliation for cooperating with the police, Johnson replied: “I’ll tell you how much they scare me. Those boys are lucky the police found ‘em and not me.”

A dozen youths were handcuffed, questioned and frisked, but they were released when police were unable to find any with drugs in their possession and because there were no warrants out on them.

Szymonik greeted many of the youths by name, teasing them for getting caught and admonishing them to stay off the streets.

Pointing to one, he said: “We busted him for selling PCP six months ago and now he’s out and selling crack. I guess for some people it would get kind of frustrating since it’s the same people night after night. You don’t see many new faces out here.

“A raid like this keeps them jumping, but that’s about it. In a few minutes after we leave it’ll be business as usual.”

And sure enough, as the patrol car pulled away, the street light illuminated a half dozen dealers who had already clustered at the side of the road less than a block away.