DRUG RAID COLLARS 24

Four-Month Undercover Investigation Focused On Newtown Area

Longtime residents of the Newtown neighborhood in southeast
Gainesville watched from their front porches in curiosity Thursday
morning as a steady stream of sheriff's and police cars ferried
handcuffed suspects to a gravel parking lot across from Antioch
Baptist Church.

"We need this," said one Mitchell Street resident of more than 25
years, who like others spoke on the condition his name not be printed
for fear of retribution. He said the drug peddling -- mostly crack
cocaine and marijuana sales -- occurs at all hours, with dealers
glancing down furtively to stash spots in bushes along the sidewalk or
hiding their crack rocks in drink bottles.

"It's all over here now," he said. "It's super-bad out there at
Cloverdale."

Indeed, the drug activity on Cloverdale Avenue was among the targets
of a four-month undercover investigation that culminated Thursday with
a roundup of 24 suspected street-level drug dealers. Most of the men
and women, ranging in age from 17 to 49, were awakened by knocks at
their doors from law enforcement officers.

"The arrests have gone smooth as clockwork," Sheriff Steve Cronic
said.

Cronic's deputies and officers with the Gainesville police department
worked with District Attorney Lee Darragh to secure felony indictments
against all of the suspects before their arrests.

In some cases, the grand jurors who returned the indictments last
month were shown videotaped evidence of the undercover drug buys,
Darragh said. Several suspects made multiple sales, authorities said.

Early Thursday, some 30 sheriff's and police officers embarked on the
roundup, bringing the arrestees back to a makeshift precinct near the
scene of their alleged crimes, where they were booked in a mobile
command center.

Hall County Commissioner Deborah Mack, who lives a few blocks from the
church, noted that most of the dealers come in from other areas to
sell drugs on the streets of Newtown.

"It's not all people from here," she said.

Mack said dealers have brazenly sold drugs in daylight
hours.

"I've had people tell me, 'Miss Mack, they're dealing drugs in front
of your house -- don't they know you are a commissioner?' I say, 'they
don't care.'"

Said another longtime resident, "It's just a mess. Old people live
over here and have to see this stuff."

Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper said law enforcement officials
would "do whatever we can to improve the quality of life over here.
We're responding directly to concerns within the community, and
they've worked with us, which we appreciate."

Local law enforcement teamed up with federal officials on a similar
drug round-up in the Cooley Drive neighborhood in southeast
Gainesville three years ago.

The residents who spoke to a reporter Thursday believe the sweeps will
put a dent in the drug-dealing, before others come in to pick up where
those arrested left off.

Said one resident, "It'll slow them up a little bit. They need
that."

Others expressed frustration that they see many of the dealers back on
the streets after posting bond.

Darragh said his prosecutors can seek to have bond denied in instances
of repeat offenders, and noted that probation or parole violations
would insure that some dealers stay locked up prior to the disposition
of their new cases.

Sheriff's Maj. Jeff Strickland said the operation "gives us a lot of
intelligence -- we know who the dealers out on the street are now."

Said one resident, "It's time. It's time."