◆ SpookStack

PHOTOs BY MARK RICH, IS— PICTURE GROUP Peewees and Wannabees: Street-gang acolvtes with walkie-talkies for lookout duty a consignment basis, a strong indicator of the cartel’s trust. One example of the in- creasingly close connection between the Colombians and the ghetto dealers was uncovered during Operation Pisces II. a two-year investigation run jointly by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and state and loca] authorities in Califor- } nia and Florida. Pisces If was a money- laundering sting aimed at identifying both smugglers and dealers. In a video- taped conversation between two Colombi- an smugglers and detectives who operated the fake money “laundry,” the Colombi- ans admiringly describe a black trafficker in south Florida. “That s.o.b, he just or- dered and ordered; it was hard to keep him stocked,” one smuggler exclaimed. “Those blacks are really the best ones,” the sec- ond smuggler agreed. East and West: There is equally little ques- tion that some of the more aggressive big- city gangs have begun to spread the drug trade into the heartland. Police from Den- ver to Vancouver report that Los Angeles gangs are moving in to establish branch operations selling rock cocaine. In Atlanta. Savannah and Montgomery, Ala.. authori- ; ties say the Miami Boys are following the same expansionary pattern. Chicago gangs have appeared in Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Racine, Wis., and the Jamaican posses seem to be organizing crack outlets almost everywhere. Kansas City authorities re- cently managed to break a Jamaican posse that began importing crack from its. East Coast base sometime in 1985; the posse was operating 75 crack houses that grossed $400,000 a dav. After that success. howev- er. Kansas City was invaded from the West Coast as well. In February four membersof | an L.A.-based Bloods gang were indicted for selling cocaine, and investigators say they have identified 15 L.A. gang members in their city. “This is the first time we've seen an American gang move into town,” says U.S. Attorney Robert Larsen. “They’re great entrepreneurs.” The big-city boys have two things going for them. First, they are usually able to buy top-quality cocaine directly from major smugglers at wholesale prices—as little as 310,000 per kilo. Thesecond is that they are better armed and far more violent than the gangs or drug rings they encounter in smaller cities. As a result, they can com- pete successfully on priceand quality—and if those classic business advantages are in- sufficient to establish a beachhead, they intimidate the competition with mayhem and murder. In Atlanta, says police Lt. John Woodward, the invading Miami Boys : Ritualistic farewell: Gang funeral in Los A ngeles demonstrated the attitude that “we're bud and we'll prove itto you. . .{they’llJ walk up to [their competitors] and just kill ‘em. It’s not, ‘I’m going to out-macho vou.’ It’s ‘?'m going to kill you.” The result. Woodward says, was 13 homicides in 1987. Enriched by their drug profits, big-city gangs can now easily afford the overhead of far-flung operations. The gang may send a scout—often a younger member—to test the market in the targer city. If the first expedition pans out, a larger group will follow to rent a ghetto apartment as astash house for volume sales. Woodward savs the lookouts and runners are often local. Body- guards may be either locals or out-of- towners. But the higher-ups. who control the stash and count the money. are always members of the invading gany. The amount of cocaine involved, Woodward also says, need not be large—a kilo or so every few days. Bring in “one kilo and you’ve got 10.000 bags of crack. and that will supply quite a few little housing areas for a few days.” he savs. “You're talking about $25 a bag. or $250,000 per kilo. The kilo costs {the Miami Boys} $10.000 to $12,000 in Miami. so there is a great. great profit margin here.” The passes: Although there is still some controversy over just how well organized the American drug gangs are, no one - doubts that the Jamaican posses are as disciplined as they are violent. Many mem- bers are believed to be illegal aliens. and the groups themselves are usually based in Jamaican-immigrant communities on the East Coast—New York, Miami, Washing- : ton, D.C., among others. But their nation- wide spread over the past several years has been staggering. The posses are major fac- tors in the crack trade in most East Coast cities. They are also active in Dallas and Houston, in cities across the Midwest and. re- markably enough, they have recently been spotted in An- chorage.. Alaska. Like most American drug gangs. the Ja- maicansare known to hire local helpers when they openacrack house in anew city. Butthe core group isalways from the island. and no outsiders are allowed to penetrate the upper echelons of the ring. U.S. lawmen say many of the posses have their roots in the slums around Kingston, Jamai- ca. Their names reflect that ge- nealogy. The Riverton Cits pos- se is named after a Kingston neighborhood. and so are the Maverly and Waterhouse pos- ses. (The Jamaicans call them- selves posses after the armed bands in American Westerns.! Some. like the Shower and NEWSWEEK: MARCH 28.1988 25