Pubdate: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 Source: Press-Register (Mobile, AL) Copyright: 2007 Mobile Register Contact: http://www.al.com/mobileregister/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269 DRUG DEALERS TAKE BUSINESS INDOORS The idea that drug dealers simply find a street corner and start selling is antiquated, according to Prichard police. Today's drug dealer, they say, wants to sell product from a location with all the comforts of home, while incurring none of the risk associated with selling out of their own residences. These hangouts, known as "trap houses," work as storefronts for the dealers, and police say they can be particularly hard to deal with from a legal standpoint. Police say it works like this: Drug dealers find people who are too poor to pay their bills, often girlfriends or single mothers, and offer them daily stipends to use their houses as drive-up drugstores. Sometimes, the property owners are unpaid. Prichard's Special Response Team raided an alleged trap house in Alabama Village in May, arresting a 21-year-old mother of two. The toddlers were playing on the porch as police took the door. Another house, this one an apparent after-school gathering place for area youths, was raided under similar circumstances in October. Once again, the mother was arrested. The benefits of the trap house business model go beyond the obvious increased access to amenities such as toilets, kitchens and couches. Police say selling drugs out of someone else's house offers dealers some decreased legal liability. Instead of simply standing on the corner with drugs in pocket, selling out of a home allows the trap-house dealer to have a stash away from his person. Should police raid the house, they can have difficulty proving to whom the drugs belong. Police Maj. Marvin Whitfield said police have raided the house of Roy Lee King three times in the past four months, but in some cases, police were unable to prosecute anybody successfully for possession of guns and drugs that were found. There were simply too many people coming and going to make a charge stick. Police arrested King once and charged him in connection with drugs and a stolen gun they say they found in his house, but those charges were dropped because they couldn't prove the items belonged to him. For his part, King said he had nothing to do with any illegal activity alleged to have been going on at his house. Drug dealers at trap houses are not entirely immune from prosecution, but Whitfield said it takes more man-hours and work. Instead of raiding the houses looking for drugs, he said, police must gather video surveillance of the dealers making sales, and even make undercover buys themselves. Whitfield said this tactic has the added bonus of levying distribution charges against the dealers, which carry stiffer penalties than the simple possession charge a dealer would get if caught holding drugs. At King's house, for example, Whitfield said police have made 16 arrests in the past year, many of which were based on distribution caught on tape. Whitfield said the department has been devoting extra resources to King's North Joseph Avenue home since a September shooting that left one man dead on the porch. Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said neighbors have also been helping to gather evidence. Encouraged by the department's Nosy Neighbor campaign, a program that encourages citizens to report lawbreakers, Prichard residents have been taping trap-house dealers across the city as they ply their wares, he said. "If you are selling drugs in Prichard," he said, "it's quite likely that someone is videotaping you." Owners of trap houses may also be subject to punishment; they may lose their homes. Battiste said King will have to go before a judge and explain why the property shouldn't be declared a public nuisance and forfeited to the city. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake