At least members of the Long Island Boys didn’t have to travel far to get to work.
Six members of the upstart gang plied the heroin trade out of the Sherman Hills Apartment Complex in Wilkes-Barre.
They were among 27 people arrested Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre as part of Operation Heavyweight, dubbed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
There are a lot of questions that come to mind in the aftermath of this impressive roundup of bad guys and gals, falling two weeks before an election in Pennsylvania. Cynics may wonder if such sweeps are timed to put the AG running for re-election squarely in the headlines so he can back up the “tough on crime” description. You are free to do that.
I’m more curious about the toxic environment here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Forget the landfills. Ignore the strip mines. The drug trade, even in a time of economic calamity in America, appears to be live and well in the streets of Wilkes-Barre. This all-cash endeavor pitted the Long Island Boys against the Jersey City Boys in a turf battle for the business of the downtrodden and addicted. The rivals used more price cuts than Wal Mart in order to corner the market and take control of the trade. These business transactions were peppered with a murder in the Sherman Hills complex this summer and the torture of a teenager who was accused of stealing a safe. A newspaper account said a teen got involved in this tragedy because he admired the way dealers walked around like celebrities in the city.
Questions abound. Last year, a bar on Hazle Street in Wilkes-Barre was tagged a “nuisance bar” by city officials. I agreed at the time that it was. The bar’s owners decided to close it and let the Guardian Angels run their operation out of the location instead of continuing the fight. Is it possible for city leaders to classify Sherman Hills as a nuisance housing project? Should people be upset that drug dealers were allowed to set up shop in a low income housing facility, paying as little as $100 a month in rent and destroying the limited quality of life their neighbors attempted to enjoy? By the way, a listener sent a link to a website that markets Sherman Hills to other people on the internet looking for housing. Photos accompanying the information on the complex include a golf course and waterfall. The $100 a month figure is from that website.
Callers had other things to say about Operation Heavyweight today. People are growing weary of Long Island and Jersey City boys swaggering around Wilkes-Barre like they own the place. One called it “an invasion of the valley.” Another called it a cancer. Someone else said a drug dealer leads “the life of a king.” One caller astutely stated the drug business is some sort of bizarro Wall Street. That’s a good analogy. However, does Wall Street leave empty, zombie-like creatures whose only choice is to steal from their families and face a life of complete demoralization while trying to get clean? We had several callers today who have lost decades of their lives trying to undo the damage that the lure of heroin or opiate drugs inflicted on them. One said he staggered through his twenties before finding his footing in his thirties. Another said he’s been struggling to fix things for 15 years.
The so-called “drug war” has dragged on for decades and it seems that for every dealer taken away in shackles, someone else is ready to take his or her place. The collateral damage is everywhere, from the county lockup to the graveyard to the rehab centers that are jammed with new faces and old favorites. These mass arrests may slow down commerce for a few days, but it won’t be long until someone else is taking the turnpike to NEPA and getting off at the Bear Creek exit to start a new career in a new town. Why don’t these guys ever have an economic downturn?
Corbett
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