YORK Eleven accused drug dealers were behind bars Friday after more than 50 police officers surrounded the "Valley" neighborhood in York for four hours, looking to put a dent in the distribution of crack on local streets.
Police pulled out all the stops – bloodhounds in case suspected drug dealers tried to run away, two K-9 units to search homes for drugs, unmarked patrol cars and a helicopter patroling above – to maximize the impact of the crackdown.
York Police Chief Andy Robinson said the police presence was "pretty intimidating" and effective in rounding up habitual drug dealers.
More than half of those people arrested were repeat offenders with one or two prior felony drug charges.
Marvin Brown, commander of the York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit, said more arrests are expected.
The drug unit conducted a months-long investigation resulting in the issuance of 46 felony drug arrest warrants. Police executed 31 of those warrants Friday.
The York Police Department teamed up with the drug enforcement unit, the York County Sheriff's Office and the State Law Enforcement Division to serve the felony drug arrest warrants on individuals ranging in age from 18 to 67 in a effort dubbed "Operation Fall Back."
Robinson requested the investigation after fielding complaints from residents in the "Valley" community, which includes Galilean Road, Valley Road, Hickory Lane, Autumn Place and Creekside Drive. Neighboring Thicket Run and Marvin Circle also were part of this operation.
"Although this was a successful and fruitful endeavor, there are still plenty of other drug dealers in and around York who will need to watch their backs because this is just the beginning of cleaning up our city," Robinson said. "Thank you to all the citizens who have called in tips and information pertaining to drug dealers and related drug activity. This type of information is critical to helping eradicate drugs and drug dealers from our streets and from our city."
The "Valley" has many senior citizens who are "really good people" and are sick of drug dealers bringing crime into the community, Robinson said.
"Operation Fall Back" targeted drug dealers – not drug users – who are probably getting the illegal substances from Charlotte, Brown said, and bringing it over the state line.
The York neighborhood has been a hot-bed for crack dealers since the 1990s, he said.
Police work such as "Operation Fall Back" aims to restore order to local streets because having drug dealers in your neighborhood is a "quality of life issue," Brown said.
In addition to 11 drug arrests, police siezed $2,000 of drug money – most of which, Brown said, came from one accused drug dealer, Gregory Davis, 47. The drug unit has taken $300,000 of drug money off the streets this year, he said.
Five guns, including a sawed-off shotgun, also were confiscated.
Brown said the officers probably spoke to 50 or 60 residents not involved in drug activity. "They're glad to see us because they're the ones who call us."
Some of the older residents in the "Valley" have watched their neighborhood fluctuate between being relatively calm, Brown said, to being a place where crack circulates daily.
Drug-related violence reached a boiling point in 1994 when 17-year-old Colin "Coca" Latta shot two police officers on Galilean Road during a round-up similar to Friday's operation. Latta shot York Police Sgt. James "Boot" Smith in the back of the neck and Rock Hill Police Detective Sgt. Vince Jeter in the hip.
At 19, Latta pleaded guilty but mentally ill, and cried and apologized to the officers and their families in court in 1996.
Circuit Judge John Hayes sentenced Latta to 20 years in prison for each count of assault and battery with intent to kill, along with an 11-year sentence for gun possession and a 20-year sentence for assaults on two jail officers while he was awaiting trial.
One year after Latta shot Jeter and Smith, two brothers were killed on the same street in a drug deal gone bad. Robin Damon Burris, 28, and Bernard Marquis Burris, 29, both of York, were gunned down in what neighbors described then as a "war zone."
Friday's operation is a step toward cleaning up the community, Brown said.
"The 'Valley' has been a recurring problem," he said. "We take care of it, it calms down and it comes back."
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