NINE ARRESTED IN CRACK RAID ON THREE NORTH SIDE HOUSES

FORT WORTH - Cab driver Bob Spence was all smiles Thursday morning when he
pulled onto a north Fort Worth street to pick up a regular customer and saw
dozens of officers converged on three nearby homes.

Typically, the 3000 block of Loving Avenue is filled with crack cocaine
dealers looking for their next sale, he said.

"Four o'clock on Sunday morning if you drive down here, they'll flag your
car down," Spence said. "They'll just want to know how much you want to
buy. ... They have guns and they won't hesitate to use them. That's why
they keep these people living in fear over here."

But among those buying in recent months were undercover narcotics officers.
Armed with search warrants and arrest warrants, about 50 officers converged
on the three houses where occupants are suspected of working together to
deal crack cocaine.

"It tickles me," Spence said. "It makes my day."

Arrested were Danny Favors, 47; Danny Releford, 22; Trojan Harrison, 33;
Joyce R. Cook, 61; Kenneth Hogg, 38; Leon Hicks Jr., 40; Leonard Polty, 52;
James Polty, age unknown; and Brinke Thomas, 40. Lt. Ric Clark, supervisor
of the police narcotics unit, said the nine face charges that include
delivery and/or possession of a controlled substance. Others had
outstanding warrants, he said.

In addition to 16 grams of crack cocaine and 3 ounces of marijuana found
during the raid, police seized an assault rifle, a pistol, a shotgun and
almost $6,000 in cash, Clark said.

Other items seized, believed to be stolen or traded for drugs, included
generators, tools, lawn mowers, bicycles, tires and stereo equipment,
police said. Eleven cases of beer were also seized.

"One of the complaints about the house is they are bootleggers and that
they sell alcohol after hours," said Lt. Duane Paul, a police spokesman.

Paul said there have been about 100 complaints of drug activity at the
houses during the past three years. Police have conducted video
surveillance of the houses, and this was the sixth search this year at two
of the houses.

To help increase the chances that those arrested will serve more time if
convicted, police said they plan to seek charges of engaging in organized
criminal activity. The charges can bolster the punishment the suspects
face, Clark said.

"This is going to enhance it. This is going to tie everyone up," Clark
said. "Our goal when we leave there today is that people who live there can
come back outside, can drive down their street and not get stopped by
people selling dope."

Ray Jones, who has lived on Loving for six years, said he and his wife had
given up battling the dealers.

"I argued with them, but they don't pay me no attention," said Jones, an
elderly man who walks with a crutch. "I called police so many times - me
and my old lady - they wouldn't do anything, so I just let it go."

But as he stepped out of his house to go to a doctor's appointment
Thursday, Jones saw dozens of patrol, crime response team, narcotics, SWAT,
vice, and canine officers swarming in and out of the houses and more than a
dozen people being detained outside. He said he was eager to sit on his
porch at night to see whether the police raid succeeded or if the dealers
would be back.

Police said if the dealers return, so will officers.

"The pattern has been we hit them, they wait a few days, then they go back
into business," Paul said. "If they go into business again, we're going to
go back out there again, doing the things we did today."