POLICE TOUT SUCCESS OF CITY'S DRUG SWEEPS

A Partnership With The Sheriff's Office That Targets Street-Level Dealers
Has Led To More Than 100 Arrests

ST. PETERSBURG - One morning in April, Reuben Coffie sat behind the wheel
of his red Pontiac and flagged down a man driving along Melrose Avenue S.

The man pulled over, and Coffie approached.

After a brief exchange, police said, Coffie returned to his Pontiac, pulled
out a plastic bag with 20 pieces of crack and sold a piece to the man, who
turned out to be an undercover officer.

On Tuesday, St. Petersburg police and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
announced that Coffie, 29, is one of 138 people either arrested or being
sought in a second roundup that is part of an ongoing operation in St.
Petersburg.

"This partnership really targets the street-level dealers, which is one of
the loudest complaints the sheriff and I hear," police Chief Chuck Harmon
said Tuesday. "It's the one the citizens complain the loudest about, and
quite frankly, it has a lot of violence associated with it."

The partnership is separate from a police task force now targeting the most
violent elements of the city's drug trade, a campaign provoked by recent
shootings involving high-powered rifles.

The police and the Sheriff's Office partnership started last year after
residents accused police administrators of failing to aggressively patrol
areas where drugs are openly sold, particularly in neighborhoods south of
Central Avenue.

The criticism drew the attention of the state's drug czar, Jim McDonough,
who asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement if St. Petersburg
needed help.

Residents and city officials asked Sheriff Everett Rice for assistance, and
Rice offered deputies for undercover drug buys.

The first roundup was last August, when police and the Sheriff's Office
announced the arrests of 57 people and said 37 others were being sought.

Since then, police and sheriff's investigators have arrested another 106
people and are searching for 32 others, Harmon said Tuesday.

Authorities did not provide a list with names and charges Tuesday but said
most of the suspects are low-level drug dealers ranging in age from 12 to
51. Police said most of the charges involve selling drugs.

Coffie, the man arrested in April, now faces federal charges. Given the two
guns and 145 grams of crack officials said they recovered from his car,
federal authorities have taken the case for prosecution. Coffie faces more
prison time if convicted on federal rather than state charges.

Pinellas sheriff's Maj. Sam Lynn, a former St. Petersburg police chief,
said the Sheriff's Office will continue to provide deputies and other
assistance.

"I think it will continue to be productive." said Lynn, "and hopefully, we
will eventually clean up the crack cocaine in St. Pete."