HUNDREDS OF LAWMEN MOBILIZED FOR CRACKDOWN ON NEW BREED STREET GANG

CHICAGO -- More than 700 police and federal agents, including SWAT
teams from as far away as Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit and
Springfield, swooped down on Chicago's New Breed street gang Tuesday
as prosecutors unveiled drug charges aimed at putting the group out
of business.

"Each of the federal defendants in this case if convicted will face
at least 10 years in prison, so they won't be back anytime soon,"
Robert D. Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office,
said at a news conference called to announce the crackdown.

The sweep followed a two-year investigation in which police went
under cover to buy drugs at the gang's alleged base -- a large
housing complex southwest of downtown known as The Square and
described by prosecutors as a fortress-like scene of frequent violence.

Officers posed as corrupt police to get firearms away from gang
members, officials said. Lawmen displayed photos of guns confiscated
from the New Breeds, including a sinister-looking green machine
pistol with a banana clip.

Chicago police Superintendent Phil Cline said the undercover officers
were extraordinarily brave because surveillance police who normally
watch them, ready to go to the rescue if their cover is blown, were
unable to see them once they were inside the housing complex.

Crack, cocaine, heroin and marijuana sales went on 24 hours a day in
The Square, which is adjacent to an elementary school, officials
said. They estimated sales at $5 million a year.

"The Square has been taken back, a number of arrests have been made
and once again it is a housing complex," U.S. Attorney Patrick J.
Fitzgerald said.

Fifty-six alleged New Breed gang members and associates were charged
in an unsealed complaint accompanied by a 166-page FBI affidavit.
Authorities said 11 others were charged in related state and federal cases.

Officials said 43 of those charged were in custody by late Tuesday as
16 SWAT teams and hundreds of other officers and federal agents
fanned out to make arrests. Officers had to be brought in from out of
town to handle the massive task of arresting the large number of people.

Also seized in Tuesday's sweep were more than a kilogram of heroin,
two kilograms of cocaine, seven guns, thousands of dollars in cash, a
bulletproof vest and four automobiles.

Federal officials said that drug sales in The Square were dominated
by a family named Covens. One brother, Terrell Covens, is president
of the recording label Projectic Groupent, officials said. The other,
Trevel Covens, was described as an aspiring rap artist and the lead
singer in The Brick Boys -- so named because drug dealers call The
Square "the bricks."

Federal officials said they had not immediately learned the names of
the attorneys representing those charged, including the Covens
brothers. Court appearances were scheduled for Wednesday.