90 CHARGED WITH DEALING DRUGS

37 'Hot Spots' In City Targeted

Ninety drug dealers, 37 drug markets.

And police say their work is not done.

Yet Richmond authorities believe they've put a sizable, if temporary, dent
in the city's street-level narcotics trade.

Over the past three months, Richmond police - with help from Virginia State
Police and the Richmond office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
- - targeted 37 known drug "hot spots" throughout the city.

Undercover officers bought drugs from 90 street-level dealers operating in
some of Richmond's most notorious drug markets. Yesterday, authorities
announced 265 felony drug charges against 110 people - 90 dealers and 20 users.

Police said they had arrested 85 of those suspects, 42 of them picked up
during the weekend after 80-100 officers scoured the streets as part of
Operation Autumn Harvest.

"I'm here today to tell you that the streets of Richmond are safer than
they were three months ago," Richmond Police Chief Jerry Oliver said during
an afternoon news conference. "Nearly 100 drug dealers are now no longer
plying their poison on the streets of Richmond."

With the arrests, Oliver said, police are sending a message to "each
nickel-and-dime drug dealer that [your] next sale could be to an undercover
Richmond police officer."

"We want drug dealers and drug thugs to stop and think, 'Is this the sale
that's going to put me in jail?'" Oliver said.

He said open drug markets are a facet of the drug trade that is the most
visible - and often the most deadly. They are responsible for much of the
city's violent crime.

Just last weekend, two men were shot to death and another was critically
wounded during an apparent drug-related shooting in a normally sedate East
Richmond neighborhood. Police found drug paraphernalia and what they
believe to be drugs inside a luxury car where at least two of the men were
shot.

One East End resident, invited to yesterday's news conference, spoke
glowingly of police efforts in his community.

"I am mighty proud of our police department in the East End," said Edward
Smith, a member of the New Vision Center civic league. "We have had a lot
of problems a year ago. But for the last three months, if appears to me
that the job is being done, and done well."

Maj. Rick Hicks said some of the 90 dealers identified by police could be
prosecuted in federal court.

"The DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office are reviewing every case to see if
they meet certain criteria, such as prior drug convictions or being
involved in crimes of violence," Hicks said.

Hicks said the majority of the charges are for distribution of, or
possession with intent to distribute, heroin or crack cocaine, or for
distribution of either drug within 1,000 feet of a school.

Oliver praised the cooperation of the DEA and state police, which he said
provided manpower and money to buy drugs.

The chief said on "any given day," police had between 15 and 30 officers
and detectives involved in the operation.

"We are pleased with the success of this operation but will not stop with
it alone," Oliver said. "Citizens should continue to call us with concerns
about drug hot spots, so that we can identify them and target them in the
future."