DRUG FOE FINDS PROPERTY TRASHED

Marvine Village resident who regularly reports illegal dealing comes home to
smashed windows and a wrecked car.

When Candace Maravilla returned home early New Year's Day to find every
window in her Bethlehem apartment smashed, a VCR and video game system gone,
and the doors pried off her sport utility vehicle, she knew what had
happened.

Drug dealers probably were paying her back for trying to stop their business
in Marvine Village.

''They weren't here to rob me. They were here to make a statement,''
Maravilla said. ''But guess what? I'm not backing down. My kids shouldn't
have to see daily drug deals on the front street. If they think I'm going to
stop calling the police, they're wrong.''

Maravilla, 29, made a statement of her own. Saturday night -- hours after
her Woodbine Street home was vandalized -- she said she called police to
break up the drug dealing.

According to Bethlehem police, neighbors reported Maravilla's apartment
being vandalized at 1:09 a.m. By the time police arrived, the vandals had
gone.

Later police found Angel Luis Carrasquillo, 19, of nearby Atlantic Street
walking through the neighborhood with Maravilla's video game system.

Carrasquillo fled on foot and eluded police until later in the morning. He
was charged with receiving stolen property, arraigned before District
Justice Elizabeth Romig and committed to Northampton County Prison.

Carrasquillo denied involvement in the crime, but called Maravilla a
well-known ''snitch,'' police said.

Maravilla said neighbors told her an angry mob descended on her car,
shattering its windows and prying off its doors. Then they used the tire
iron and jack to break the windows of her home. In all, she said, about $600
in damage was done to the apartment and the vehicle was ''totaled.''

''They didn't do this in a few seconds,'' Maravilla said. ''They were here
awhile. There was glass everywhere.''

Maravilla said she began trying to stop the drug dealing soon after moving
into the housing project in April.

Maravilla said she isn't on a crusade against drug dealing. She simply
doesn't want it in front of her home, where her children, ages 6 and 10, can
see it.

Her home sits in the middle of the block, where dealers can easily see
police cruisers entering from three directions.

Maravilla said she routinely asks the dealers to leave, and then calls
police if they don't.

Maravilla said she may ask the Bethlehem Housing Authority to move her to an
apartment in another neighborhood, but she doesn't plan to stop her efforts.

''Oh, I refuse to give in,'' she said. ''I know they'll try something else,
but I'm not going to just let them deal out front.''