After almost two years of surveillance and undercover work, an army of more than 300 law enforcement officers set out at dawn Thursday to crush two of Boston’s most violent street gangs, arresting 27 longtime criminals on federal narcotics and firearm charges that prosecutors hope will end what had become a revolving door of arrests and short prison terms.
The raid came as welcome relief to residents on Woodward Avenue in Roxbury and in the Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester, where authorities said the two gangs have been the driving force behind more than 60 shootings and six homicides in the last six years.
Comments
Interesting timing for Carmen Ortiz. I hope the law enforcement people were ready to go now and this wasn't simply a way for Ortiz to change the subject.
The Herald treated this tale a little differently than the Globe's deferential view of Carmen Ortiz, the embattled U.S. Attorney. The Herald reported that this unsympathetic woman actually showed a bit of emotion over the Swartz prosecution/suicide story, though whether that emotion was for herself or swartz is unknown. Might have been better if the Suffolk Count DA or even state AG Martha Coakley and some deputy federal prosecutor had handled the questions.
Congrats for getting these gang bangers off the street. In the short term, this should make the streets safer. Unfortunately, all that has been accomplished for the long term is clearing the way for other bangers waiting in the wings to fight it out take their place. The sheer amount of money involved, tens of thousands of dollars a day, combined with a 43 percent clearance rate for homicides in Boston for 2012, are unlikely to convice other wannabe drug kingpins from plying their trade on Boston's mean streets. I would point to the first episode of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, where the future bootleggers are raising a champagne toast at midnight on the first day of Prohibition because they all know they are about to make boatloads of money once booze is illegal. Th fortunes and violence that follows is as utterly predictable as it is avoidable. We should, at the very least, legalize marijuana for recreational use, and take a hard look at what Portugal has done to stem the tide societal impacts of illegal drugs in that country. They say the first sign of mental illness, in this case society's, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Great comments Stack. There are always players waiting in the wings to fill in the gap when the leaders are taken off the street. That is because there is so much demand for drugs and the money is so good.
Thanks lttk913. Sorry for the typos.
Hopefully their assets will be reviewed before we end up paying for all their lawyers.
I wonder if Tal got pinched.
Three handguns ? That has to be a misprint unless someone knew to expect visitors.