DEAL BREAKERS: CNT AGENTS FIGHT PERVASIVE, SHADOWY FOE

Officers Say They Are Outnumbered On The Street And Some Neighborhoods Are
'infested' With Drugs.

Police acknowledge it's an insane little game.

Agents on the countywide Counter Narcotics Team make arrests, but simply
too many people are buying, selling or running interference in Savannah.

The men and women with the gold badges are outnumbered.

Which is the worst street in the city? Almost everywhere is worst says Lt.
Ethel King.

"Get out your pen and paper," she says in an exaggerated tone, as if to
make a list would take awhile.

Turning her unmarked vehicle into a dusty, unlit lot behind Grayson Stadium
on Saturday, King joins the dozens of other cops to be briefed on the next
raid of the night. Everyone is on shift this weekend.

The CNT agents will form a perimeter surrounding the intersection of Live
Oak and 54th streets.

A team will then go in to "shake up" the corner, according to Capt. Dean
Fagerstrom, deputy CNT commander.

It's an area that gets numerous complaints from residents, King says.
Officers use the term "infested" to describe this and other neighborhoods
plagued by drug activities.

Fagerstrom says its another example of the out-of-control supply and demand
created by addictive drugs.

Even at "full-blown" staffing, CNT doesn't have the ideal number of
officers to fight the problem on a daily basis, Fagerstrom says.

The money just isn't there for new officers, and state law doesn't allow
positions to be funded with proceeds from drug-related confiscations.

He says CNT was fortunate to get new unmarked cars in the last year.

In those unmarked units, the agents move into their shadowy positions and wait.

Within about 10 minutes, the signal is given, but it's premature. A motion
censor light on a house has revealed the position of one of the forward teams.

Everyone who is outside breaks into a sprint, scattering in seemingly
random directions.

The cops, of course, give chase because fleeing police in a known drug area
creates probable cause for an arrest.

One cop takes a kid to the ground.

The teenager apparently has no drugs or weapons on him.

"If you didn't do anything, why did you run?" the cop asks the young man.

Police know its common for suspects to simply ditch their drugs on the
ground as they flee. A K-9 team with the Chatham County Sheriff's
Department makes a check of the ground in the vicinity as a precaution.

Even though the element of surprise is ruined, several arrests are made in
the neighborhood.

Agents display some of the evidence - including a 9 mm handgun and a $10
crack rock - in clear plastic evidence bags on the back of a patrol car.

The stuff is typical of what's confiscated for the night - and barely
scratches the surface of what's really out there.

Police aren't discouraged, though. Their adrenaline is up from all the
running, and among those arrested is a man who, on a previous occasion,
verbally assaulted some agents.

Members of the city-county Narcotics Eradication Team escort the suspects
to CNT headquarters for processing, then on to the county jail.

Before they get back into their cars, the cops pause for a group photo in
front of a house where some of the drug activity has been known to take place.

All other by-standers have cleared out except for one young man. He has
been dancing alone for sometime in a driveway across the street. He could
be high on something.

Through a car window, police take his picture, too, as they move on to the
next targeted neighborhood.

CNT agents make broad weekend sweep

Drug cops targeted both buyers and sellers over the weekend.

In all, Counter Narcotics Team officers arrested 42 people, either inside
or outside Savannah city limits.

The team, consisting of officers from the multiple policing jurisdictions
within the county, made 21 arrests Friday, including 13 for criminal
attempt to possess a controlled substance.

Most of the arrests in that night's "drug reversal," which focuses on the
buyer, were in the area of Montgomery and Jefferson streets, between 31st
and 41st streets, CNT Capt. Dean Fagerstrom said.

"We could have kept going all night," Fagerstrom said. "At one point we
were turning clients away because we were running out of fake substances."

Another 21 arrests were made Saturday night - this time targeting street
salesmen.

Police spokesman Bucky Burnsed said the arrests included four charges of
possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a housing area,
six for possession of a controlled substance, five for possession of
marijuana and four for obstruction.