Teenage Drug Dealers and Wanna be Gangsters

This has been an interesting week. Over the past several months we've watched a group of kids that started to hang out together start to form a gang.

They at first just gave a name to their loosely affiliated group. They started to commit crimes of mischief which is typical when you get a large group of boys together. They get brave in their numbers.

Not long later they began to do low level street narcotics sales. Soon they become competitive with each other, they split and start battling with each other. Now guns have come into the picture. Guns don't just come from nowhere, which means they're stealing them. Of course they have to show that they're not afraid to use the guns, so before long shots are fired. They're either really bad shots or most likely they truly do NOT want to hit someone. Scaring people seems to be the intent.

Homes and cars get burglarized to fund their activities. Some people are intimidated into not speaking up while others are too happy to call the police - God bless them.

This is our story which I'm sure is a carbon copy of many many other cities and towns. We've been targeting the group and putting a lot of pressure on them. We're hitting them every time they make a public move. Officers are getting involved even when off duty and a big effort to share information is being made between the officers.

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to have caught some of them in the act of a burglary. After getting confessions from a couple our guys were able to track down more of the offenders and recovered a gun. The ring leader is facing juvenile life. We're hoping it sends a message to the rest of the group.

The story continues...

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