FEDERAL GRANT FOCUSES ON ENDING MILWAUKEE'S ROLE AS DRUG HUB

40 arrested so far in multi-agency crackdown on narcotics, gangs

The city's most crime-infested areas are being targeted by local, state and
federal authorities armed with a $3 million-a-year federal grant to root out
gangs and drugs.

Since late August, when the new High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area effort
began, more than 40 arrests have been made, according to U.S. Attorney
Thomas P. Schneider.

The grant was awarded earlier this year after Schneider applied for special
federal funding, identifying Milwaukee as a regional hub for drug
distribution.

Milwaukee "is the central distribution point of drugs throughout most of the
rest of Wisconsin and parts of Michigan," Schneider wrote in his funding
application. "Cases prosecuted in federal court and by district attorney's
offices throughout the state regularly document the central role Milwaukee
plays as a distribution center."

Schneider identified Milwaukee, Chicago and Gary, Ind., as a "central
mid-American drug importation and distribution area."

As an example, Schneider cited the federal prosecution of Jerry Walker,
sentenced last year to two life sentences with no possibility of parole for
being the kingpin of a huge drug ring. Among the 26 other defendants
convicted in the Walker case was a supplier in San Francisco and people
distributing drugs in Racine, Schneider said.

More recently, he said during an interview, a local drug investigation
traced the drug network to Los Angeles and resulted in the conviction of
Keith Robinson, a leader of the notorious Crips gang in California. Eleven
others have been convicted of participating in the same operation.

Erick Slamka, the director of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
project, said "the overall goal is not to disrupt, but to dismantle these
organizations so they can't reappear in a different form."

The success of the drug trafficking project will not just be measured by how
many arrests are made, because arresting a bunch of low-level dealers may
not do anything to slow the organization backing them or to reduce the
violence associated with drugs and gangs, he said.

The grant money will pay for a wide variety of law enforcement agencies to
work together, including local police departments; the Milwaukee County
district attorney's office; the U.S. attorney's office; the FBI; the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms; the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department; the State Division of
Narcotics Enforcement; the U.S. Customs Service; and the National Guard.

Four different task forces have been established: one targets the heroin
trade; two take aim specifically at gangs and drugs; and one gathers
intelligence about the local drug trade.

The task forces allow different agencies to share information, and a major
investment in computers will be made to keep track of it all.

"We're not just going haphazardly after the nickel and dime dealers,"
Schneider said. A task force of the drug trafficking project is involved in
the continuing Latin Kings gang investigation that already has resulted in
the indictments of 33 people, Schneider said.

But while authorities crow that the special funding will enable them to do
things they have not done previously in the so-called war on drugs, the need
for the money shows that despite years of stepped up efforts to curb area
drug distribution, the narcotics trade remains a serious problem in
Milwaukee.

Authorities increased the prosecution of drug traffickers in Circuit Court
in 1990 with the creation of the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Group, a unit
consisting of several assistant district attorneys and several officers from
area law enforcement agencies.

That same year, the county opened two "drug courts" in Circuit Court with
the goal of resolving trafficking cases in an average of 90 days. Business
has been brisk in the drug courts since then, so brisk that a third such
court opened its doors in August.

At the current rate more than 1,900 felony drug trafficking cases will be
prosecuted in Circuit Court in 1998. That represents a 58% increase over the
1,199 trafficking cases prosecuted in Circuit Court in 1993.

"We may actually see a greater increase in the number of trafficking cases
because of this (the drug trafficking project)," said Assistant District
Attorney Patrick J. Kenney, director of the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement
Group.

Kenney said that illegal drugs, particularly crack cocaine, remain a
significant problem in Milwaukee for two reasons.

"First, it appears that the crack epidemic has left us with a substantial
number of hard-core users," Kenney said. "There still is a very substantial
customer base, and there are people who want to make money off other
people's misery."

The second reason, according to Kenney, is that "the crack problem has not
run its course here yet."

On the East and West coasts where crack became a problem in the mid-1980s,
the drug's grip on cities is diminishing, Kenney said. Crack reached
Milwaukee in 1990.

Social scientists attribute the crack decline on the the coasts to the
"Little Brother Syndrome." Under that theory, young people who have seen
firsthand how crack addiction has devastated the lives of older siblings or
parents now shun the drug.

"They don't want to be like that," Kenney said. "Unfortunately, I don't
think we've gotten to that point here yet."

Two recent Circuit Court cases illustrate how substantial the crack customer
base remains and how eager dealers are to exploit it:

Lorenzo Ronnie Frost and William D. Avery were recently imprisoned for
running a crack house on the north side that catered to addicts eager for
quick fixes. A longtime narcotics detective termed the operation a "smoke
house," a place where $10 to $20 quantities of crack were sold to addicts
who smoked it on the premises.

In addition to exploiting addicts, the drug house catered to crack-addicted
prostitutes who turned tricks for drugs on the premises.

Nancy K. Ezell, a north side grandmother who has been imprisoned three times
for drug dealing, was convicted of running a major cocaine operation in
which she was aided by three siblings, three daughters and grandchildren.

Eleven people were convicted of participating in the ring that utilized
Ezell's 12-year-old grandson as a "runner," according to court records.

Schneider, Kenney and others hope the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
project will accomplish what previous efforts have not.

Under the program, six assistant district attorneys will be sworn in as
special assistant U.S. attorneys, allowing them discretion in deciding
whether to charge particular crimes under state law or under federal law.
The penalties can differ dramatically.

Another element of the program takes a different approach: Safe & Sound, a
three-year, $21 million communitywide initiative to fight crime and offer
positive alternatives to youth, along with neighborhood organizing efforts.
The drug trafficking project is helping to fund the effort, Schneider said.

A big advantage that the project has over previous federally funded
programs, Slamka said, is the freedom that comes with the money.

"The initiatives set up by the Milwaukee (drug trafficking effort) were set
up by the Milwaukee (drug trafficking effort)," Schneider said. "They
weren't set up by Washington, who said we want you to do this and this and
this."

The $3 million grant came from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Schneider credited U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett
(D-Wis.) in helping secure the funding.

Checked-by: Don Beck