HEROIN IS GROWING DRUG TREND

Dope seized by Wilmington police increased 1,000 percent since 2000

Cocaine and marijuana long have been the dominant illegal drugs bought and
sold in Wilmington, police say.

While that still is the case, heroin is emerging as the fastest-growing
narcotic bought and sold on city streets - most notably in the Hilltop and
Riverside areas.

Heroin addicts and dealers, many from out of state, are descending on
Wilmington. Seizures of the drug by the city police drug squad are up about
1,000 percent from 2000, when 40 grams of heroin were seized. In 2001, 200
grams were confiscated - a 500 percent jump.

As of last week, 463 grams have been seized.

"Heroin is huge," said Capt. Sean Finerty, commander of the Drug, Organized
Crime and Vice Division.

Of the 409 grams of heroin seized between January and October of this year,
386 grams were taken from the West Side, primarily in Hilltop, according to
police statistics. Nineteen grams were seized in northeast Wilmington,
including Riverside.

About half of the buyers who come to Hilltop and Riverside have out-of-state
license plates, mostly from Maryland, Wilmington Police Sgt. Mark
Christopher said.

"The people who usually go to Philadelphia have found it is easier to come
here," he said, adding that officers have seen an increase in the number of
buyers from North East, Rising Sun, Elkton and even Ocean City, Md.

"This year is the first year I've seen that many people from Maryland,"
Christopher said.

Detective Danny Silva of the drug division said he recently arrested a
Maryland man and asked him why he came to Wilmington. "Everybody knows to go
to Fifth and Franklin," the man said.

According to a report released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of
Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center, heroin "poses the greatest drug
threat to Delaware."

The report cited the low cost and purity of the drug, along with a
significant increase in the number of new abusers, particularly teens and
young adults.

Last year, more people were admitted to Delaware treatment facilities for
heroin than any other illicit drug, according to an August report by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is headed by John Walters.
There were 2,153 people admitted for treatment for heroin addiction in
Delaware, 400 more than those who sought treatment for alcohol abuse.

And while treatment is one way to attack the problem of heroin abuse,
Finerty is trying to combat drug abuse on a different front. He has started
a program to alert unsuspecting parents and spouses that their loved ones
may be buying drugs in Wilmington.

Last month, police began sending letters to the registered owners of cars
spotted prowling the city's worst drug-infested neighborhoods.

The letter, personally signed by Wilmington Police Chief Michael Szczerba,
is meant to send a warning signal.

"It's a heads-up," Finerty said. "The way we're looking at it is that it
can't hurt."

Finerty got a call Thursday from an Elkton, Md., man who got one of those
letters.

The man told him he let a friend borrow his car to drop off some friends. He
said he had suspected his friend was using the vehicle to buy drugs.

"He was not happy at all," Finerty said. "Maybe now that is one less person
coming to Wilmington to buy heroin because he can't get a ride anymore."

And while law-enforcement agencies are trying to stop drug buyers as well as
major drug shipments from coming into Delaware, dealers are busy devising
ways to hide drugs from police and would-be robbers.

Last month, the city's drug squad seized $40,000 worth of heroin from an
elaborate trapdoor built into the dashboard of a 1994 Chrysler Concorde.

Silva of Wilmington's drug division said he saw that the panel above where
the air bag should have been was not dusty, unlike the rest of the dash.

When he pushed on it, it opened and police found 2,000 bags of heroin
inside, he said. The heroin, packaged with labels such as Al Capone, NyQuil
and El Nino, was coming from Philadelphia, where most of Wilmington-bound
heroin originates, Finerty said.

A $5,000 system in the car would pop the lid off a portion of the dash when
a series of buttons was pushed, investigators said. The two people in the
car were charged with trafficking heroin and jailed.

And even though Erin Allen, who died of a drug overdose at age 21 in 1997,
used to buy heroin in Philadelphia, her mother Marie said she was not
surprised to hear Hilltop has become a destination for heroin seekers. The
area around Fifth and Franklin has been a landmark for drug buyers for
years, she said. Allen, who lives in Newark, lectures on heroin abuse at
schools across the state with the New Castle County police's Heroin Alert
program.

She said education is the key to deterring new abusers, even though the
statistics are not showing much progress.

"As hard as we're trying, I don't think it's going to stop any time soon,"
she said.