Drug trade remains entrenched in Camden

By JASON LAUGHLIN
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

Young men dressed in black hooded coats and tan work boots trudge down side streets and alleys throughout the city.

Narcotics investigators say the clothing is almost a uniform for many city drug dealers, and for a reason: When suspects dress the same, they are more difficult to track.

They are everywhere. Some hold thick wads of cash. Officers point out pairs or trios of men scattering from doorways and back alleys.

Though the number of open-air drug markets has declined and violent crime is down, drug dealing continues to flourish in this impoverished city despite the federal probe that nabbed drug kingpin Jose "JR" Rivera and led, in part, to the investigation of Mayor Milton Milan.

Five drug dealers testified during Rivera's trial that Milan was a dealer himself in the 1980s.

Milan was never charged with drug trafficking. But he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy and one count of money laundering for accepting a $65,000 loan of drug money from Rivera in 1994, before he became a city council member and then mayor. Milan was accused of breaking the money down into amounts below $10,000 to avoid detection by the IRS.

Both the Rivera case and the Milan investigation brought attention to Camden's deeply entrenched drug trade.

The fact that Rivera and Milan are now both in prison awaiting sentencing sends a message that "no one is above the law," Camden County Prosecutor Lee Solomon said Friday.

"My sense is the upshot of this (Milan's conviction) will be on the residents' perceptions and belief in the system," he said.

Besides boosting morale within the police department and clearing the way for restoration of "good and ethical leadership," the impact of the mayor's conviction may trickle down to the street as well, the prosecutor said.

Dealers and buyers may operate with less "impunity" if they see the system as willing and able to intervene.

Changing this culture takes time and leadership, including from the top of city government, Solomon said.

Neighborhood activists, meanwhile, are wondering whether it is not time to rethink Camden's drug-fighting strategy.

"Police have arrested enough people and have tried to make a dent but it appears for every one person arrested there's two more guys to take their place," said Sister Helen Cole, who works with Guadalupe Family Services on State Street.

In the early 1990s, when Rivera headed the city's largest drug operation, the city had about 200 open-air drug markets. Today, the number has dropped to between 120 and 125, say narcotics investigators with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force.

The crime that accompanies drug trafficking is down as well. Camden has recorded 26 homicides so far this year. Last year, the city saw 25 homicides. The numbers are far fewer than the count in 1995, when the total hit 58.

The drug-fighting task force uses federal funds and resources to combat mid- to high-level drug dealing. Officers and investigators from various departments serve on the task force.

"We're able to put away guys who were untouchable before," said Sgt. Scott Thomson, a city officer working with the HIDTA task force.

This year, HIDTA has confiscated $1 million in drugs and arrested 1,000 people on felony charges, the task force said.

Still, on a ride through Camden the problem seems overwhelming. Dealers scatter like pigeons at the sight of officers. As investigators search an abandoned home in South Camden, shouts can be heard at the end of the block. The dealers are running, but only to set up shop again on another block, Thomson said.

Often officers suspect men gathered on city corners are dealers, but can't search them. The dealers know it.

"Do me a favor, bounce," Thomson says to five men sitting on a stoop in South Camden. The men say they were just talking about old times, but leave.

In minutes the men will spread the word throughout the neighborhood that vice officers are prowling and dealers will shut down - for about a half hour, Thomson said.

Neighborhood leaders agree drugs are still everywhere in Camden.

The vastness of the problem is staggering. At the end of November, city officers confiscated almost 2,000 bags of heroin worth $18,210 from a man charged with dealing on Bailey Street in North Camden. That's only about two days' trade for a successful drug operation, officers said.

And there have been hints of a turf war. In North Camden, a 10-year-old was shot and suffered a minor injury during an October shootout, police said. In the Whitman Park area, residents and officers say a New York contingent of dealers has been trying to make inroads into the Camden drug scene.

"At the present time, we're a little bit overinfested," community activist James Dobbs said. "We think police are chasing them out of other areas and chasing them into the Whitman Park area."

Police agree Whitman Park is one of the most troubled areas in the city. Almost every kind of drug - including marijuana, crack and heroin - can be bought there.

Community activists and some officers think the problem will never be solved until users - not dealers - are stopped. Rehabilitation or more severe punishment for users are two options.

"I don't think prison is the answer at all," said Sister Anne Winkelmann, director of substance abuse at Maryville Alcohol and Other Drugs Treatment Center in suburban Williamstown. "We have a counselor who was in 12 different rehabs. You never know when it's going to click."

Camden residents make up a large number of her center's patients, she said. She attributes Camden's drug problems to poverty and the lack of jobs.

In North Camden, black-hooded young men still haunt the corners and warily watch passing cars. But Sister Cole says the atmosphere is different. A few years ago, a nun who placed a wreath on the family center's door walked outside a few minutes later to find it stolen, Cole recalled. This Chistmas, the neighborhood's streetlights are wrapped in garland and wreaths are staying up.

"I think people aren't living in as much fear," she said.