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Spangler gangs, claim vague affiliations with Jamaican political parties: the Spangler posse aligns itself with the Peo. ple’s National Party of former prime minis- ter Michael Manley, while the Showers identify with the Jamaican Labor Party of current Prime Minister Edward Seaga. Ja- maican politicians, however, disavow any connection to the groups. In reality, most posses were probably marijuana-smuggling rings in Jamaica. But the crack explosion of the 1980s offers unlimited profits to the posses just as it does to American gangs, and Jamaicans have been even quicker than the Ameri- can gangs to exploit the oppor- ting enormous pressure on police all across the country. Cocaine and heroin traffickers are now deeply entrenched in the ghettos of many larger cities, and drug profits are a powerful incentive to hundreds of thou- } sands of unemployed black and Hispanic teenagers. In addition, many gang mem- bers are increasingly expert in exploiting loopholes in the law. Asa result, California and New York authorities are considering new anti-gang legislation patterned after the federal RICO (Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organization) law; such state RICO statutes will enable prosecutors to | seek longer prison terms for gang leaders convicted on other charges. Officials in cit- ies like New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—to say nothing of Los Angeles—are also being forced to reorga- nize their police departments to meet the threat of drugs, which means cutting back on manpower for other crimes. “We need more resources—people and equipment,” says Frank Storey, the FBI’s chief drug official. “Resources are the most crit- ical problem at the federal, state and local level.” Outmanned, outgunned and outspent, the cops are fighting back as best they can. There is nothing they can do to control the spread of weapons like Uzis tunity. South Florida. with ; its Colombian drug connec- | tions, is the adopted home for | an estimated 1,000 posse mem- | bers. The Shower and Spangler i Possesarethetwomaingroups, { and some lawmen say all other | gangs are offshoots of these | two. The lesser posses have ex- otic names like Dog, Jungle and Hl Okra Slime. One group, the Jungle Lites, is reputed to be | expert in guerrilla-warfaretac- | tics, and police suspect they | may have received military training in Cuba. Reggae and death: But every posse has a fearful reputation for violence. Nationwide, ac- cording to U.S. experts, the Ja- and AK-47s. As long as such guns have been adapted to fire only on semiautomatic—a pro- cedure that is readily reversed by outlaw gunsmiths—the sales are wholly legal under federal law. Officers who must deal with the gangs routinely wear armored vests (which of- ten will not stop an assault- rifle round), and many depart- ments now equip all their | officers with automatic pistols to increase their firepower. But ghetto busts are extremely dangerous anyway: in Boston, for example, Police Lt. Det. Mel Ahearn has trained a spe- cial "Jamaican entry squad” to take on the posses in their maican gangs have been linked to 800 murders, including more than 350 last year alone. Posse shooting their victims in pub- lic, and reggae clubs in major cities have a well-deserved rep- utation for frequent homicides. A dispute between posse mem- ™ MARK AICHARDS —PICTURE GROUP On-the-spot fab work: An officer tests ‘for drugs in Los Angeles A Street-Side Pharmacopeia Oo; the last two years some drug dealers have aban- doned marijuana and heroin to push crack. But others are doing a brisk business in new imports—and some old standbys. A report from the city streets: strongholds. . There is every indication, meanwhile, that thegang/drug problem will get worse. If the analogy to Prohibition is accu- rate, the gangs have only begun to consolidate their hold on drug trafficking—and given their growth so far, it seems i i gunmen are known to prefer { { Hl H | bersata reggae club in Houston last October led toa fatal shoot- ing in front of nearly 100 wit- nesses, and New York police report that homicides occur al- most weekly at a popular Brooklyn nightspot known as the Love People disco. Torture and maimings are posse trade- marks as well. “They don’t mind shooting people. We've had numerous cases of Jamai- cans who were shot in the knee or leg,” says Dallas police inves- tigatorCharlesStorey.“Alotof groups have a potential for vio- | lence, but [the Jamaicans]dem- onstrate it daily.” Dallas police say Jamaicans were linked to 35 homicides in 1987 and 10 to 12 so far this vear. The explosive growth of the Cocaine and crack: A giut has forced the price of a kilogram of cocaine from $65,000 four years ago to $10,000 in some places. In some cities, a vial of crack costs only $3. Marijuana: Though somewhat harder to find since the crack boom, pot is by far still the nation’s most popular illicit drug; 18 million Americans smoke it regularly. Hallucinagens: A watered-down form of LSD is making a comeback, mostly in the West. Sales of inexpensive liquid PCP are up again on the East Coast. Mexican heroin: The street price for Black Tar, which is as much as 80 percent pure, can climb to $500 per gram. A bargain brown-powder heroin sells for $120 to $150. Asian heroin: One form comes from the Golden Crescent (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) and another from the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos, Thailand). Fentanyl: A potent heroin substitute known as China White, the synthetically produced “designer drug” is most- ly a West Coast fad. Street price: $3,200 a gram. reasonable to expect that they, like the Mafia before them. will become even more skillful in evading law enforcement. The supply of smuggled drugs— Asian heroin, Mexican heroin and cocaine most of all—seems almost limitless. At the same time, the federal government, which has scattered the respon- sibility for combating drugs among dozens of different agen- cies. seems to lack a coordinat- ed national strategy. Who's running the war, America’s hard-pressed cops are asking— and when are the good guys fi- nally going to win? Tom Morcantaau with Mien act A. Leenerin Los Angeles, Ricuaao Sanoza in Washinuton. Nowy Appottin New York. - Gonzavezin Miami. Patricia Kiyo in Chicago drug gangs nationwide is put- a and bureau reports NEWSWEEK : MARCH 28,1988 27