This is the second of three posts discussing Federal Sentencing Guidelines which came about, in part, because of the rise of crack cocaine dealing in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Much of the impetus for the implementation of sentencing guidelines came from the black community because the black community was most adversely affected.
I can’t help thinking that this issue has come up due to the arrogance of the elite, that they think they know all about dope dealing based on their experiences at Yale. Have you ever seen a grandmother wrestle a stray dog to the ground in order to give it a blow job for a $20 rock of crack cocaine? It’s called “freaking” and it is what happens when a group of crack dealers get together and offer free crack to the “geekers”. The only requirement being that anything goes.
In the late 80’s early 90’s somebody came up with crack cocaine. Cocaine up until this time was cocaine HCL. Crack took the HCL out of the equation, it turned a powder into a solid with the durability of a pencil eraser. Up until this time consumers bought cocaine in street quantities called sixteenths (1.7 grams) ($100-125 in the early 90’s)and eight balls (3.5 grams) ($175-200 in the early 90’s). Crack cocaine, a twenty (.20 grams) ($20 i the early 90’s). This put cocaine out of reach of most users. It was possible to buy smaller quantities, the waste associated with consuming small quantities of cocaine meant it was not economical. The highest most intense high comes from smoking Cocaine HCL but there are inherent dangers in smoking Cocaine HCL, just ask Richard Pryor and Ricky Nelson.
At this same time the market was changing. Colombian trafficking organizations tried to control the sale of cocaine from the manufacture in jungle labs to street level sales in American cities. Inherent in this effort to control the market was a level of violence that would make bootleggers of the 1920’s blush. Demand outstripped supply. When the Colombians turned into wholesalers supply opened up and prices began dropping.
The area considered to be the “east side” of San Antonio has the largest concentration of African Americans. Within its confines you can find Victorian Mansions, Plantation style homes, and Craftsman Bungalows. African Americans are no longer the majority population on the east side. With the civil rights movement the population began to disperse. Because of population density, abandoned homes, public housing and an easily attitude towards making money, the east side has been home to long standing dice games,poker parlors, after hours joints, bootleggers and curbside heroin dealers. Crack dealers just seemed like the same old same old.
There was a model in place for street corner sales. Heroin dealers maintained street corner operations for decades. You can see the dealers standing on the corner with their cheeks bulging with heroin balloons early in the morning and again at 5:00 pm. A meeting would take place, an exchange of money, a feint to the mouth the requisite number of balloons spit into a hand, then the exchange in the form of a handshake. A right of passage was to send rookie police officers out to strangle heroin dealers, thus preventing them from swallowing the evidence.
But crack was different, instead of one dealer, dealing with a discreet clientele the crack dealers showed up 8 and 10 deep. They hawked their wares like they were selling the San Antonio Express News. They got in arguments with one another over ownership of customers and when things didn’t go their way pistols came out and there was blood on the street. When the police swept the corner they might carry off four dealers, 5 or 6 crack rocks. The next day 8 or 10 dealers would be back.
A day after a shooting I would be on the same street corner talking to witnesses who described the victim running away crying and screaming while two fellow dealers chased him, blazing away hitting all around him until a couple of bullets found their mark and down he went. To hear them tell it, the whole situation was funny as hell and a great time was had by almost all.
There was a belief among these shooters that if they intended to shoot person A and they missed and got person B then, that was an accident and they shouldn’t be charged with murder. If all the shooter wanted to do is rob person B and person B resisted causing the shooter to kill person B, then that was person B’s fault. And the shooter was justified in defending himself.
The guys that actually were putting the dope out on the street didn’t live on the east side anymore. If they tried to implement the east side way of selling crack in any other part of town it wouldn’t work. Part of the reason it worked on the east side is that there was no shortage of willing street level dealers. They were not only young males, they were housewives, retirees, ex-cons, grandmothers and uncles. They didn’t need any money to get started. They would be given a rock to sell and when they returned with the money they got another one. If they ripped off the dealer then they stood the chance of a beat down or being killed.
A question I put to every street level dealer I arrested was: “How long would it take you to go from selling fronted dope to selling your own ounces, assuming you didn’t get ripped, busted or smoke up your profits?” The answer was a pretty uniform 2 days. Quick math ounce of crack $600, that’s 28 grams, 5 rocks per gram, potential profit $2800. Like any other number this is flexible and $1800 is probably nearer the mark. We could tell when a street level dealer was starting to feel comfortable. He would get a room at the local Motel Six. When we raided it we would find multiple packages of underwear.
A favorite tactic of crack dealers would be to rent or take over a house at a favored corner. When I say take over, the dealers would move in on an elderly occupant and hold them hostage while they used the house. This would become a way station, a place to store dope and money until the runners could collect it. Periodically, one of the street level dealers would come to resupply and reconcile the money. There wouldn’t be any dealing out of the house but there would still be a lot of coming and going. Street level dealers needed to be supplied as did the house. Depending on how much dope the house was allowed to keep on hand runners could be in and out once an hour or once a day.
The dealer not only had to worry about the police, but he had to worry about the jackers. If a jacker found a crack house he could put together a raid team quicker than we could. One multi-ounce dealer that I targeted was named “Fat Marvin”. Every time I ran across Fat Marvin he would have $800 in one pocket $1100 in another pocket, $3000 in his right sock and $5000 in his left sock. He usually got his money back from me. I related Fat Marvin’s manner of keeping his money to an informant that I had used for quite a while. The informant broke out laughing and said I can explain.
The informant was standing outside the grocery store one afternoon waiting for his wife. A known hijacker walked up to the informant and they began a conversation. While they were talking, Fat Marvin pulled up with his girlfriend. Fat Marvin got within ten feet of the hijacker before he noticed the jacker. The informant related that Fat Marvin got the deer in the headlights look. The hijacker called him over. This is taking place at 5:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon at the busiest grocery store on the east side. So there was a low likelihood of gunfire breaking out. The hijacker started the conversation by asking Marvin, “How many times have I jacked you?” Marvin replied, “5-6.” The jacker continued, “How many times have I shot you?” Marvin again replied, “Twice.” The jacker pointed out, “We’re both getting too old for this shit, we need to come up with a new plan.” Marvin looked hopeful and agreed. The hijacker proposed his solution, “Every time you see me, you don’t run, you come over and give me everything in your pockets.” Marvin agreed and began to walk away. The hijacker called him back, “Empty your pockets, motherfucker.” Marvin did.
On 90% of the search warrants the task force executed we found firearms in conjunction with the drugs. By this I mean guns were hidden in rooms commanding exterior doorways. They were found in drawers where drugs were kept and occasionally they were in a crook’s hand when we made entry.
In 2002-2003 we targeted three different crack cocaine organizations and eventually arrested 57 individuals for prosecution in Federal Court. With the exception of five, all of the other defendants had prior felony arrests. As a group, they had already spent over 100 years incarcerated. Fifty-five were found guilty, two were acquitted and one eventually was overturned on appeal.
We were able to arrest the leader organizer in each group. One plead guilty to distributing 1000 kilos of crack cocaine during a five year time period. One plea guilty to possession 11 kilos of crack cocaine. The third had a kilo of cocaine and a pistol sitting on the table when we executed the search and arrest warrant for him. All of the others plead guilty to distributing 1/4 to 1 ounce quantities of crack cocaine to an informant. Many times the quantity of drugs sold is dictated by police resources. Put it this way if giving your wife a dozen roses will get you out of hot water, why buy 14? Each member of the organization contributed to high number attributed to the leader organizer.
Federal versus State prosecution. I don’t understand why it is so, but Texas prosecutors do not believe in conspiracies. There are a few District Attorney’s offices who take advantage of the conspiracy statute, but Bexar County isn’t one of them. Federal prosecutors rely on conspiracy charges in almost every prosecution, at least as a charging instrument. Once you start looking at a crack transaction as part of a whole rather than a single incident then you are taking the first step towards targeting an organization.
In targeting an organization you are giving the individual members an opportunity to begin to make amends. The guidelines are represented by a chart where column a and row 27 intersect gives all the players, defendants, prosecutors, police and defense attorneys a starting point. It says here is the time you are liable to do, if nothing changes. But things will change, the defendant can plead guilty and take responsibility prior to indictment and the sentence drops. The defendant can agree to provide substantial assistance to the government. The greater degree of cooperation the greater the “downward departure”. One of the leader organizers I referred to earlier went from a potential forty years to five years based on his cooperation. Truth is everybody snitches. It was such a non-issue among the crack dealers that all the codefendants were housed in the same pod in the Federal holding facility. My standard spiel at a debriefing session went like this,” I want you out of the dope business, if I gotta take 15 years of your life to do it I will. But if you think 5 to 7 will do it, then let’s get to work.”
When I first started working crack dealers on San Antonio’s east side, if you asked,”who’s got it going on?” The word would come back So and So is the man. The day after So and So got busted, somebody new would proclaim that they were the new king of the east side. That is how it went for ten years, the king is dead, long live the king. A funny thing happened when we took down the last king. Nobody stepped up and when one was nominated, it was followed very quickly by a denial, “Nope not me, sorry wrong table.” I’m too jaded to consider that an indication of success.