PHILA. IDENTIFIED AS A HUB FOR HEROIN

A Pa. grand-jury investigation found dealers from across the state
came to the "Badlands" to buy, reselling at big profits.

A sure supply of pure, cheap heroin in Philadelphia regularly lures
dealers from across Pennsylvania who then sell the drug for up to a
400 percent profit, according to an 18-month statewide grand-jury
investigation released yesterday.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher said at a news conference
that buyers from as far away as Greene, Luzerne and Blair Counties
made lucrative profits off the heroin they bought in parts of North
Philadelphia known as the "Badlands."

"I was sickened to realize the number of young people who got in their
car, drove 200, 250 miles, . . . spent their money, bought poison,
went back and sold it for a profit, and some of them died," Fisher
said.

Fisher, a likely contender for the Republican gubernatorial
nomination, was joined by Philadelphia Police Department
representatives and parents of heroin-overdose victims. The news
conference was in the 2700 block of North Hope Street in Fairhill,
where state agents broke up a heroin operation in 1998 that had
shipped nearly 6,000 bags of heroin into Greene County.

The investigation opened after reports of heroin-overdose deaths
throughout the state and investigations into heroin
trafficking.

The report detailed how a heroin operation works: Suppliers obtain
kilo quantities of heroin and pay $2,500 to $6,000 a week in "rent" to
dealers in North Philadelphia, who in turn agree to sell the
supplier's heroin. The dealers then pay others to sell the heroin on
the streets and serve as lookouts.

Suppliers often stamp a brand name such as "I'll be Back" or "Ghetto"
on their heroin packet. Runners can deliver the heroin in cars with
hidden compartments that can be opened by a secret method, such as
using small magnets or simultaneously using the ignition, windshield
wipers and radio.

The report recommended a mandatory minimum jail term for anyone
convicted twice of intent to deliver a controlled substance,
regardless of the weight involved. Currently, minimum-sentencing laws
apply only to those found with two or more grams of heroin, which drug
agents said allowed dealers to easily avoid jail time.

The report also called for tighter monitoring of bench warrants and
more educational programs in schools.

At the conference, Deborah Fowler said her 18-year-old son, Adam, had
driven to North Philadelphia from his home in Carrolltown, Cambria
County, to buy heroin. She found him dead of an overdose on May 19,
1998.

"Living in a rural community 250 miles away from Philadelphia, I never
thought my son would become a victim of heroin or any illicit drug,"
Fowler said.