Pubdate: Fri, 25 Mar 2005
Source: Sentinel And Enterprise, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Mid-States Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://sentinelandenterprise.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2498
Author:  Hillary Chabot

A RISKY BUSINESS

Paul McNamara, A Fitchburg Police Officer, Is On The Front Lines Of The War
Against Drugs.

McNamara found himself fighting for his life one day while working on
Fitchburg's STRAIT (Strategic Tactical Response and Intervention team)
unit. A man attacked McNamara and Sgt. Joaquin Kilson on Crestview
Lane after they stopped him for having an open container of beer.

"It was a fight for our lives," McNamara said. "It went from an
encounter of, 'What's your name,' and 'You know you can't be drinking
here,' into hand-to-hand combat very quickly."

McNamara said the man came to Fitchburg to buy drugs, but he must have
already been high when he arrived.

"We were on the ground fighting, the three of us, and we didn't know
where our weapons or radios went. A woman nearby handed Sgt. Kilson
his radio," McNamara said. "It took four or five of us to arrest him."
McNamara is part of the new STRAIT team, a three-person group
Fitchburg Police Chief Edward Cronin started last June to work
specifically on arresting drug dealers in high-crime neighborhoods and
to help at-risk youths. McNamara, who wears plain clothes when he
works with Kilson and Joanne Bairos, said he didn't realize the extent
of the drug problem in the city. "When we first got there, I was
intimidated by the amount of drug dealing and gun shots," McNamara
said about Green Acres, the housing project on Normandy and Leyte roads.

Fear on the faces "We were all nervous. We felt like this could turn
from somebody just doing their job into someone getting killed very
quickly," McNamara said. "You could see the fear on the parents' faces
when we first arrived." McNamara said when he first drove the new
team's van into Green Acres, a drug dealer tried to sell to him.

"The first day we drove up the street we saw a guy in a car and a kid
selling to him in the middle of the street. It was like a McDonald's
drive-through. It was horrible," McNamara said.

McNamara said the team usually works from 4 p.m. to midnight, and they
often catch people either buying or selling drugs.

"They'll come up to us and say, 'Hey, you got a 20?' and I'll say,
'Yeah, you got the money?' While they turn around to get the money,
I'll whip out my neck badge. The first thing they say when they see
the badge is, 'I wasn't doing anything,'" McNamara said.

A 20 is the term for a rock of crack, which costs $20, McNamara said.
Drug addicts come to Green Acres to buy crack, and they go to
Crestview Lane for heroin, McNamara said.

"Except for 50 Allen Place. They're selling both crack and heroin out
of there," McNamara said.

McNamara said his goal is to "just keep the drug dealers in the
housing projects off the streets so the normal people can enjoy their
lives." He said he was surprised by the open drug dealing and
prostitution in Fitchburg, which he didn't see until he went
undercover. "For the first time I really saw what people are
complaining about," McNamara said. McNamara also works with kids who
are "borderline" to ensure they stay out of trouble. "We talk to the
kids. We'll go visit the families on Thursday nights, and you really
see what these people are dealing with. These people work 12 hours a
day or 16 hours a day, and their kids need something to do," McNamara
said. Officers and detectives like McNamara and Leominster Police
Detective Joe Siciliano said they are often shocked or saddened to see
how illegal drug use hurts the children of the people who are either
selling or using drugs. Siciliano said he's found children alone in a
house during a drug raid. "You'll go into these houses and the kids
are there alone. The parents are out, so they lack guidance,"
Siciliano said.

Horrible conditions Siciliano often raids decrepit drug houses when
executing a search warrant. "It's depressing. You go into a lot of
these places and there's no food, no furniture, and they're sleeping
on mattresses. It's just horrible conditions," Siciliano said.

Siciliano said he's often seen drug addicts tear families apart. "It
hurts a lot of innocent people. A heroin addict in a family, they'll
steal and lie; it hurts. Their temperament changes, they're irritable.
You've got people blow a whole paycheck on drugs," Siciliano said.
Detectives know the toll drugs can take, but it is a difficult,
dangerous and often complicated task keeping drug dealers and addicts
off the street, they say. Surveillance and undercover intelligence are
two of the main tools law enforcement officials use to arrest drug
dealers, said Siciliano. "The long-term is we try and go after the
source. You work a case, and you try and go as high up as you can,"
Siciliano said. "We have to prioritize. We could go after the guy who
is making $500 a day or we could go after the guy smoking the
marijuana cigarette."

Fitchburg City Councilor and former city cop Joel Kaddy said police
officers who fight drugs are part of "the dirty side."

"They have to become friends with prostitutes and drug users to gain
their information," Kaddy said.

Gregg Nadeau, a member of the state police gang unit, said good drug
enforcement is a combination of making a lot of arrests to let drug
dealers know police are cracking down, and undercover work to get
information about drug dealers who might not be so obvious.

"Overt operations are good at crime suppression, but we really do need
work behind the scenes and in the shadows to be effective," Nadeau
said. Snitches and dealers Police officers use drug addicts and
low-level dealers to try and get information about the bigger dealers
in the area, Siciliano said. "Every time we make an arrest, we get
information," Siciliano said. Police need to work carefully doing
undercover work in order to catch the drug dealers.

Larger drug dealers, who are supplying the dealers on the street,
could stop their operation completely if they believe police officers
are investigating them, Siciliano said.

"You'll find a lot of bigger dealers aren't going to draw attention to
themselves," Siciliano said.

Police Chief Cronin said drug dealers work just as hard not to get
caught, as police do to catch them.

"They have to adjust their strategies, just as we adjust ours," Cronin
said. Making a point But McNamara said STRAIT team members sat in lawn
chairs one summer night in the Green Acres housing project to show the
drug dealers they weren't going anywhere. "It's like a game. They know
we're there, so we have to sneak around to catch them. The reason we
sat out there is to let them know we aren't going away. We're here to
stay," McNamara said. "That's the big fear of the people in the
neighborhood. (The drug dealers) know we're usually only there for a
week or so while the problem is still hot in the paper or the mayor's
office." Cronin said drug dealers have surveillance and undercover
operations of their own. "We are aware there are some people bringing
in larger volumes (of drugs) on average here. We can't give any
information about who, because we would risk the life and limb of our
officers," Cronin said. "Our officers meet with people who deal drugs
on a daily basis. They put their lives on the line." Siciliano said
secrecy is one of the main weapons of police officers fighting drugs.
"You want to catch these people by surprise," Siciliano said. "We just
don't want to mess things up ahead of time."

People arrested for drug offenses in Leominster and Fitchburg may
become informants, Siciliano said.

"It makes it more difficult if our informant thinks he may be found
out," Siciliano said. "They make a point to see who gets arrested. If
they suspect the person is working with us, they'll freeze him out.
Informants could be lost if they are fingered in the paper."

More mobile Drug dealers are also becoming more sophisticated and more
mobile, Cronin said. Cronin said many drug dealers stopped operating
out of houses recently, after search warrants in Fitchburg produced a
lot of drug arrests. "It's like a shell game now," Cronin said. "There
are certain drug dealers who live in one part of the city, and every
day go to another part to deal drugs. They use cell phones now, and
it's extremely mobile." Drug dealers have spots where they will leave
the drugs called "hides," Cronin said.

"Because of all the warrants we've had, they'll move it to a hide, and
then they'll change the hide," Cronin said. "They do it because they
are scared of getting caught."

Police officers face a big risk because they go undercover or use
informants to buy drugs, Cronin said.

Drug dealers will try to use just as much intelligence to identify who
the police officers and informants are.

Nadeau said he and his unit must "always be aware of
counter-surveillance." Drug dealers stay just as well-versed in the
law as police officers. "They know the law. Often they'll say, 'It's
under 14 grams. You can't get me on trafficking,'" Siciliano said.

A typical day Nadeau spent a typical day for him organizing an
undercover drug buy of two guns and an ounce of cocaine on Day Street
in Fitchburg on a recent February afternoon. Nadeau sat 20 feet away
from the transaction surrounded by scanners and walkie talkies to
coordinate the operation.

Nearby, other police officers worked surveillance up and down the
street. "One of the guys on surveillance right now has already been
approached by two hookers and watched a street-level drug deal right
in front of him," Nadeau said. Children walked out of a nearby
day-care center into the sunny afternoon and boarded buses while
Nadeau waited.

Nadeau had a list of cars to look out for that the drug dealers could
be driving. Two alleged drug dealers delivered the guns to Nadeau's
undercover informant only a block away from the day-care center.

The transaction took place between two cars on the street. "Sometimes
the bad guy will get out or vice versa. They can do it any way they
want," Nadeau said.

The guns cost $350 each, and the cocaine cost $900, Nadeau said.
Nadeau didn't arrest the pair on the street, saying he'll get an
indictment instead. "As far as the takedown, we're going to hold off,"
Nadeau informed the other officers. Then he explains, "If it's an
ongoing case, sometimes we'll go for a grand jury indictment.
Sometimes if you make arrests right away, you could burn the informant."

A regional approach Area police say it's important to take a regional
approach to stopping drug trafficking in North Central
Massachusetts.

"I doubled the size of my drug unit, and we joined the North Worcester
County Drug Task Force," Cronin said. "We put out about 100 search
warrants in a year. I would leave it to the measurable outcomes to see
what I've done." The task force increased the resources and the amount
of information about local drug dealers for Fitchburg and all police
departments involved, Cronin said. Drug arrests in Fitchburg went up
from 197 in 2002 to 246 in 2004, according to police records.

Leominster Police Chief Peter Roddy said his department also works
with the regional drug task force, and the State Police Gang Unit. "We
do surveillance, we do undercover work, we do high visibility, we do
uniform-patrol work ..." Roddy said. "The educational aspect is
something we hope will help in the long term."

Shoplifting and drugs Gerald Poirier, one of the leaders of the North
Worcester County Drug Task Force, wants to crack down on shoplifting
to slow the drug problem in the area. "The conversion of stolen
property is fueling the heroin industry," Poirier said. "If we can
stop the flow of stolen goods into cash, then we can slow down drug
sales."

Poirier said drug addicts will sell everything they have to buy drugs.
"Many addicts told me they were doing fine rehabilitating until they
found a new money source," Poirier said.

Poirier said most addicts steal from national chain stores, like
Wal-Mart and K-mart, and sell those items to local privately owned
convenience stores or flea markets.

"I started a daily visit to secondhand stores and private convenience
stores and asked them to stop buying from people who are known
addicts," Poirier said. Roddy said it takes a certain kind of officer
to work on the drug unit. "It's a special breed of person. Some people
have the knack, and some don't. You have to develop informants, and
you have to run down a lot of tips," Roddy said. "You have to realize
you're in it for the long haul, and the immediate gratification
doesn't always come."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin