DRUGS BEHIND STRING OF KILLINGS, COPS SAY

Homicides in Detroit are down from last year, but a surge of at least
10 killings in the past few days has demonstrated the close link
between homicides and the illegal drug trade.

Police said a quadruple killing late Monday night appeared to be
drug-related. Officers found a marijuana-growing operation in the
basement and marijuana plants in the backyard of an east-side home
on Runyon.

On Monday morning, officers sent to a west-side home on Tuller, in
which a 42-year-old man and his 17-year-old son were killed, believed
the deaths were related to the marijuana trade, police said.

Police had no evidence of a connection between the two incidents.
Police questioned several suspects in the Runyon shootings but as of
Tuesday night no one had been charged.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials say violence around
big-time marijuana dealers is more common than people think because
the drug is so profitable.

"The violence has always been a part of the trade when you're dealing
with large-scale marijuana trafficking," said Rich Isaacson, special
agent and spokesman for the DEA field office in Detroit.

Depending on purity, a pound of marijuana sells for $750 to $1,400,
Isaacson said.

So far this year, 287 homicides have taken place in Detroit, police
said, down from 300 during the same period in 2006. In total last
year, 411 homicides occurred in the city, police said.

Nonfatal shootings have decreased significantly: 882 this year, down
from 1,094 in the same period of 2006.

At the scene of the killings in the 19000 block of Runyon, near State
Fair, neighbors said the house had frequent traffic late at night. A
7-year-old boy was found unharmed.

Neighbors said they heard about 30 gunshots in succession before
police arrived.

Police said a gang known as the Runyon Street Boys frequents the
area.

The victims Monday night included a 33-year-old man identified as
Michael Robinson. The other victims were two unidentified men, 22 and
20, and a 25-year-old woman. A 30-year-old woman who was shot was in
critical condition Tuesday at an undisclosed hospital.

Four other fatal shootings occurred during the weekend.

A man was killed in the 9300 block of Livernois on Sunday. Four
people were shot -- one fatally -- on the front porch of a home on
Walton on Sunday.

And Saturday, a man was killed at a restaurant on Holbrook and
another man was killed on East 7 Mile.

"These aren't random shootings; these aren't people getting caught in
the cross fires," police spokesman James Tate said Tuesday. "These
are intended targets."