WASHINGTON GANG LEADERS NABBED

Washington - Police captured leaders of a violent street gang
that turned a neighborhood in the national capital's poorest section
into a war zone in an effort to control the illegal drug trade,
authorities said Thursday.

In three years, members of the gang known as the "One-Five Mob"
"committed 40 assaults and attempted assaults, including seven
murders, 13 attempted murders and 20 shootings" in the area around the
Stanton Dwellings, a low-income housing project in Anacostia, U.S.
Attorney Wilma Lewis said.

Twenty-two alleged members were arrested in early morning raids at 20
locations in the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland. District
police and FBI agents also netted $60,000 in cash, 18 pounds of crack
cocaine, six pounds of powdered cocaine, a little less than two pounds
of heroin, and 22 handguns and assault rifles.

Authorities acted on an indictment bearing 100 local and federal
counts including murder, assault, armed robbery and firearms and
narcotics violations. Several suspects face possible life
imprisonment without parole if convicted.

"These arrests will allow us to start other investigations," said
Jimmy Carter, of the FBI's Washington field office.

"As a result of this investigation, since its inception we've closed
at least 20 murders," said Carter.

Authorities identified Tommy Edelin, 30, as the gang's leader.
Edelin's organization used violence to protect themselves against
rival drug dealers, for retaliation and to silence potential
witnesses, authorities said.

Other defendants range in age from 21 to 49. The oldest is Edelin's
father, Earl.

One of the gang's alleged victims was shot and killed as he returned
from a prom with his date. In another case, three bystanders were
wounded in July 1996 when group members allegedly opened fire in a
daylight drive-by shooting at a crowded picnic in a city park.

A month earlier, two district police officers were wounded as gang
members allegedly fired on a rival street gang.