POLICE USE MACADAMIA NUTS IN STING

Mobile police have found a new use for macadamia nuts that's not too
tasty. Officers used chopped macadamia nuts to resemble rocks of crack
cocaine during a drug sting Friday and Saturday on a street corner
near downtown that has been the subject of repeated complaints about
illegal drug activity.

"Our operation was two-sided to attack both the supply side and the
demand side," Chief Phillip Garrett said.

As part of the sting, police searched two houses on State Street and
arrested six people on charges of distribution of a controlled
substance. Police seized crack cocaine, Lortabs, and more than $4,000
in cash at one location, Johnson said.

Then undercover officers posed as drug dealers at the corner of State
and Kennedy streets. As they made deals, marked cars would swarm the
person who made the buy. Once the street was quiet again, another
person would approach the undercover officer without being aware of
what had happened earlier.

"These are people from mainly outside the neighborhood," Lt. DeWayne
Hill said. "You'd be surprised how many people come into the
neighborhood like this to do their dirty work."

Police said the two-day crackdown resulted in a total of 21
arrests.

The people caught buying fake crack were charged with a misdemeanor,
attempting to possess a controlled substance. Hill said word of the
arrests would ripple through the neighborhood and have an impact on
drug dealing.

"We want to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the buyers to buy
and the sellers to sell," he said.