POLICE SWEEP NETS 43 DRUG SUSPECTS IN LAKE WORTH

Lake Worth Even people police say are gang members cry when they're arrested.

On Wednesday, that's what happened with [Name redacted] , alleged by
police to be a Top 6 gang member and one of 43 suspects involved in
cocaine sales in the city during a two-day sting.

Sixteen are thought to be affiliated with the Top 6 gang, which is
responsible for dozens of drive-by shootings this year, authorities said.

Police run the drug sweep twice a year, and this year was the first
with that many suspected gang members, Lt. Peter Ebel said.

"They mask themselves as a record group, but really they are a street
gang," Ebel said.

One of their most bothersome crimes to police: witness tampering.

"We commit a lot of resources to a case and next thing you know a
witness is telling us, 'I don't remember it that way,'" Ebel said.

The 10-member Special Operations Division of the Police Department
worked on undercover cocaine buys for about two months, videotaping
each buy, then going back Tuesday and Wednesday for the busts.

Twenty of the 43 were arrested, six of whom were suspected Top 6
members, police said. They will look for the 23 remaining suspects
and issue warrants if they cannot be found, they said. Four people
arrested were juveniles.

Police are working with the Palm Beach County Violent Crimes Task
Force and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in battling the
Top 6 gang, Ebel said.

The sting operation, dubbed Deep Six, "is an effort to rid our city
of this criminal street gang," he said.

The latest homicide linked to the gang was that of Higue Pierre, 20,
on Friday in the 1200 block of 15th Avenue South in Lake Worth.
Pierre was gunned down in his car, police said. He was a person of
interest in a Sept. 24 gang shooting at the Super 8 Motel in Lantana
that left a 21- year-old man dead and two others injured. The county
task force is investigating both shootings.

Pierre was killed three days after the task force arrested [Name
redacted] , 23, in the Super 8 shooting.

"The timing of the sweep was getting these guys off the street
because of the recent violence," Ebel said.

The timing wasn't good for [Name redacted] plans. The 21-year-old was
driving around with his newborn baby; the mother of his child, [Name
redacted] , 18; and another man, [Name redacted] , 28.

When[Name redacted] stepped out of the car on Fifth Avenue South off
Dixie Highway, police moved in and found 0.08 grams of crack in a
Midol bottle in [Name redacted] purse, they said.

According to police, [Name redacted] said [Name redacted] threw the
bottle in her purse when police came. He said he wasn't selling
drugs, police said. Then he said he was selling drugs to support his
family, police said.

"Baby, why they taking me to jail?" [Name redacted] wailed. "My baby
don't have nobody."

[Name redacted] already was charged with the sale of cocaine from the
police investigation. But Wednesday, [Name redacted] was charged with
possession and [Name redacted] with possession of narcotics
equipment, a misdemeanor.

A police dog found 1.2 grams of crack in the passenger side of the
car, police said.

[Name redacted] did not go quietly. He went from crying and pleading
with police to hollering and struggling. He has been arrested 20
times, mostly on burglary charges, state records show. [Name
redacted] was charged with possession of cocaine in West Palm Beach
last year. [Name redacted] has been arrested several times on drug charges.

Gang-related gun incidents seem to feed upon themselves as if the
code of the Wild West were still in effect, Ebel said..

"It's twisted that these kids live by the gun and die by the gun," he
said. "They have to know that there is no future in this."

Staff Researcher William Lucey contributed to this report.