AP News, September 6th, 2006
Mobile police have found a new use for macadamia nuts that's not too tasty. Officers used chopped macadamia nuts to resemble rocks of crack cocaine during a drug sting Friday and Saturday on a street corner near downtown that has been the subject of repeated complaints about illegal drug activity.
"Our operation was two-sided to attack both the supply side and the demand side," Chief Phillip Garrett said.
As part of the sting, police searched two houses on State Street and arrested six people on charges of distribution of a controlled substance. Police seized crack cocaine, Lortabs, and more than $4,000 in cash at one location, Johnson said.
Then undercover officers posed as drug dealers at the corner of State and Kennedy streets. As they made deals, marked cars would swarm the person who made the buy. Once the street was quiet again, another person would approach the undercover officer without being aware of what had happened earlier.
"These are people from mainly outside the neighborhood," Lt. DeWayne Hill said. "You'd be surprised how many people come into the neighborhood like this to do their dirty work."
Police said the two-day crackdown resulted in a total of 21 arrests.
The people caught buying fake crack were charged with a misdemeanor, attempting to possess a controlled substance. Hill said word of the arrests would ripple through the neighborhood and have an impact on drug dealing.
"We want to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the buyers to buy and the sellers to sell," he said.
___
Information from: Press-Register, http://www.al.com/mobileregister
