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Drug Warriors
Billy White was wearing a jacket with the word "POLICE" printed on the back, and jeans. His piece was a Glock, a nine-millimeter pistol - New Haven Police Department standard issue. Around him, White recognized state cops, special agents from the DEA, officers from the U.S. Marshal's office, FBI special agents, and other police detectives like himself. There were anti-drug case agents from the ATF, and intelligence officers from the police departments of nearby cities. White looked around. These were his people, his soldiers, the ones who would be by his side on the front lines. This was the New Haven Drug Gang Task Force, and Lieutenant Billy White was in charge of it.
It was 3 a.m., and most of the men had been up since the morning before. But none of them would sleep that night either. They had a big day ahead of them. Hours earlier, White had been in his office, preparing warrants. Meanwhile, the New Haven Airport had quietly filled with federal agents, flying in from New York and Washington, DC. They had then gathered at the western corner of the city. The team's field headquarters that night would be an empty building on the very edge of town. The 300-man team of federal agents, state police, and local police had gathered to discuss the next step in the war on drugs.
White listened as his friend Kevin Kline, an FBI special agent and one of the original members of the task force, was speaking to the law enforcement army. Kline laid out the battle plan for the morning's drug bust: the agents were to organize themselves into squads, forming arrest teams and back-up crews. The teams assigned to carry out raids received arrest packets containing the names, addresses, and photographs of each suspect, as well as search warrants issued by the federal court. At 5:30 a.m., the teams were to split up, each reporting to their designated sites to prepare for the final stage of the operation: making the arrests.
As he listened, White asked himself the same question that everyone else in the room must have been thinking. Could the team pull off a successful bust? Born and raised in New Haven, White still remembered a time when New Haven was considered a peaceful town. In 1960, only six murders, four rapes, and 16 robberies were reported. But soon, the drug gangs set up shop, and the turf wars began. With the gangs came gang violence: drive-by shootings, innocent victims killed, murders in broad daylight. In 1990, there were 31 murders, 168 rapes, and 1 784 robberies. "Back then it was hell," White recalls. "I thought, 'What are we doing?'"
At exactly 6 a.m., the task force executed a coordinated sweep, arresting 29 out of the 32 people on the list. The arrests in the New Haven area all proceeded without incident. Afterwards, FBI special agent Robert Grispino was struck by the cops' intense emotion. "It was quite a sight," he told reporters. "With some of the New Haven cops, there were tears in their eyes." Billy White, of course, was among them. "We got some big fish, too, guys that handled multi, multi, multi kilos," says White. Of the 29 arrested, about 13 were Colombian citizens. The task force had successfully arrested many of the importers and distributors that had connections with source companies. "The core organization that they arrested here in New Haven had direct connections with Miami, San Juan, and Cali," says Grispino.
Meanwhile, the entire Cali cartel leadership has been arrested by a Colombian police squad. Eight of the top nine Cali drug lords have given themselves up to Colombian authorities or been killed in gunfights with police. Today, New Haven residents are once again venturing out into the streets. The neighborhoods feel safer. In fact, the task force's operations have proven to be so successful that they have attracted national attention. As for Billy White and his team, they continue to do what they have always done. "I think we can win the war on drugs," says White. "I'll probably be gone by then. But I think someday, we'll work our way out of a job, and there won't be any more gangs left in this city."
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