DRUG WAR HITS HOME FOR GWINNETT RESIDENTS

If metro Atlanta is a battleground in the war against drug
trafficking in the United States, then Gwinnett County is on the
front lines.

That's no secret to police or the residents who live there. A
bountiful supply of rental homes and the state's largest Latino
population have made the county a magnet for Mexican drug cartel
operatives looking to blend into their surroundings.

Federal prosecutors say the county is the epicenter of the Southeast
region's drug trafficking activity. Gwinnett is also designated as a
high intensity drug trafficking area (HIDTA) by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, along with 19 other counties in metro
Atlanta and central North Carolina. Jack Killorin, the director of
the Atlanta HIDTA, says investigations into cartel activity typically
have a tie in Gwinnett.

"Within our designated counties, Gwinnett is the center of their
operations," Killorin said.

This influx of drugs has had an impact on more than just the
peddlers, dopers and the police.

It has punctured the peacefulness of Buckingham Place, a Duluth
street where two homes served as bases of operation for drug cartel
operatives.

It has blighted the business for shopkeepers at a Lawrenceville strip
mall where a grocery store was a front for a brisk street-level
narcotics trade.

And it has created a steady stream of clients for a substance abuse
treatment facility in Lawrenceville that is fighting to pull addicts
back from the brink.

These are their stories:

Buckingham Place

Buckingham Place is a residential street that lies about halfway as
the crow flies between I-85 and Buford Highway in Duluth.

Take a drive along it and you'll see a lane dotted with mature trees,
wood-frame houses and hand-painted mailboxes.

What you won't see - what few residents even noticed until recently -
is the drug activity going on behind closed doors and curtained windows.

Seven months ago at a cream-colored ranch home at 4238 Buckingham
Place, authorities hauled in the largest methamphetamine seizure east
of the Mississippi River.

Several houses down and across the street at 4299 Buckingham Place is
a blue split-level home that was the location of an unrelated drug
rip-off in May that left one man dead and three others injured.

"You don't know where or when you can find a drug dealer right here
in this neighborhood," said Jesus Hernandez, a seven-year resident of
Buckingham Place. "Right now, you can find a drug dealer right next
to your house."

Part of the problem may be "for sale" and "for rent" signs that have
cropped up like so many weeds along the street. Foreclosures and
unsold, vacant homes are an open invitation for criminals to come
inside.

A Buckingham Place resident, who asked not to be identified because
he was a witness to the quadruple shooting, said the presence of the
drug smugglers went unnoticed because "they kept to themselves and
nobody knew what was happening."

Shortly after the drug bust and shooting, about 30 residents held an
impromptu street corner meeting to discuss improving neighborhood
security. They toyed with the idea of installing cameras at the
entrances to the neighborhood, but the effort stalled when some
people complained it would violate their privacy, Hernandez said.

Hernandez plans to move as soon as the real estate market
improves.

Other neighbors, such as Connie Pruitt, have no intention of leaving.
The 39-year-old mother, who lives on Buckingham Place with her
husband, said she was "freaked out" when the drug activity came to
light. Especially since so many children - including Pruitt's two
elementary-school-age daughters and several of their playmates - live
on the street. But Pruitt said the recent troubles haven't spooked
her badly enough to want to move.

"I have lived here 15 years. It is an older, established
neighborhood, and the school system is good," Pruitt said. "I've
never felt threatened or afraid."

199 E. Crogan St. shopping center

The Ramirez family has been serving authentic Mexican food at
Tortacos restaurant for eight years. Situated on the corner of a
shopping strip at 199 E. Crogan St. in Lawrenceville, the eatery
doesn't court a party crowd. It doesn't even serve liquor. Families
are the target customer, said the owner's son, Jose Ramirez.

Families have been increasingly difficult to attract since October,
when police arrested eight people and seized 7 pounds of cocaine and
other illegal drugs at an adjacent grocery store. Police said El
Parral Carniceria y Fruteria was a front for street-level narcotics
sales.

El Parral may be gone, but darkened storefronts and criminal activity
continue to plague the only three tenants still operating: Tortacos,
a tax preparation company and a barber shop.

"We still see a lot of cars drive up to the store, get out and walk
around," Ramirez said. "These are people that we know normally
wouldn't be there unless they were looking for drugs."

Several shopkeepers have fallen victim to a spate of robberies and
burglaries. Tortacos was burglarized on Monday. Someone smashed a
window and stole about $100. The restaurant was held up twice around
Christmas last year.

Jorge Castano, who owns the tax preparation company Latin Georgia
Services 2, said the grocery store was burglarized at least four
times before the police shut it down. The owners never reported the
burglaries because they were trying to conceal their illicit trade,
Castano said.

Tenants say the shopping center has fallen into disrepair. No lights
come on after dark, and about half the storefront windows are boarded
up or empty.

Mercedes Ramirez, who primarily runs Tortacos, took a second job at a
doctor's office and cut the restaurant staff from four employees to
two to offset declining profits.

"We're right now in a situation that has not allowed us to move," she
said, since the restaurant is bound by a lease. "I don't know what's
going to happen."

Property records show the shopping center went into foreclosure in
August. A Florida mortgage finance company, Bayview Loan Servicing,
purchased it. Brian Bomstein, the attorney representing the company,
said Bayview is still locked in litigation over the property.
Bomstein said the company does not have possession of the shopping
center, and he declined to comment about the state of affairs there.

Castano said many of the people who used to frequent the shopping
center were illegal immigrants. Customers are now staying away
because they believe police are still watching the place.

"People are nervous," Castano said.

Purple Inc.

Drugs can rob a man of many things: a home, children, marriage, job,
reputation and health.

But Joel and Brett Bagley have made a business of restoring lives at
Purple Inc., a drug and alcohol treatment center for men in
Lawrenceville.

The father-son team of certified addiction counselors bought a
100-year-old farmhouse off Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road in 2003 and
turned into a place of healing. The serene 8-acre tract boasts a
volleyball court, fire pit, and an oddball assortment of goats,
chickens and guinea hens. With its relaxed atmosphere and the
camaraderie of up to 23 clients, Purple Inc. is designed to immerse
addicts in "recovery as a way of life," Brett Bagley said.

"We give them a new life, is what we do," Bagley said.

Bagley, who became addicted to drugs in his junior year of high
school, understands what clients are going through. In-patient
treatment worked for him, as he hopes it will for those who come to
stay at Purple. The program also treats the families of addicts. His
father, Joel, learned the importance of including families in the
healing process in the wake of Brett's addiction.

Counselors at Purple say addicts will always find something to numb
them from problems - be it alcohol, prescription pills or illegal
narcotics. But the more widely available a drug is, the more socially
acceptable it starts to become, Brett Bagley said.

The easy availability, increased potency and lower price of narcotics
is a concern for counselors at Purple. Ashley Kilpatrick, an
addiction counselor since 1985, said the drug problem in metro
Atlanta seemed to reach a crisis point around 2005.

"I have known more kids under age 20 that have overdosed on narcotics
in the last four years than the previous 20 years put together,"
Kilpatrick said.

Yet there is also plenty of cause for hope. The counselors at Purple
point out that the Atlanta area has a huge recovery movement. There
are nearly 30 narcotics recovery meetings held each week in various
locations in Gwinnett County. The meetings have an average attendance
of 30 people who are fighting to take back control of their lives,
according to the Georgia Regional Service Committee of Narcotics
Anonymous.

Among them are many people, such as the Bagley family and the
counselors at Purple, who are willing to lead broken people along the
path of sobriety.

"We live what it is we ask them to do," Brett Bagley said. "We create
opportunities for recovery to happen."