POLICE POSING AS HEROIN DEALERS MAKE 57 ARRESTS IN NORTH CAMDEN

CAMDEN - More than 50 drug suspects were arrested Friday night in a law
enforcement operation that involved about 30 officers from the city, Camden
County, and the county Prosecutor's Office, authorities said.

The operation, in which police posed as heroin dealers, was set up at Fifth
and Bailey Streets in North Camden.

Most of the 57 people arrested were released on summonses, said Greg
Reinert, spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office. Charges ranged from
possession of drugs to loitering in a known drug area.

The loitering charge generally applied to those who had come along on a
drug buy but had not actually bought heroin, authorities said.

"As far as operations go, it's not unusual," Reinert said. "It's a tactic
that's used pretty frequently. You have [operations] that go after dealers,
and you go after suppliers of dealers, and then you go after the buyers."

He said most of those arrested had come from outside Camden and had
traveled fairly deep into North Camden.

"Obviously the suburbanites are going deeper into Camden," he said.
"They're going further in to get what they want."

Reinert said one purpose of going after the buyers was to dissuade those
who may be just starting to use heroin. Two of the purchasers, he said,
were 19 years old.

Heroin is "a horribly addictive drug that destroys lives, and if we can
turn a few people away from it, [the operation] is a success," he said.