Cops: Illegals involved in drugs, gangs (Hazleton Standard-Speaker)

By KENT JACKSON
Staff writer

SCRANTON – One-third of people arrested by the Hazleton police drug unit last year were illegal immigrants, as were one-third of arrested gang members, two city detectives testified Wednesday.

Zola testified about how police in his unit spent time and money preparing a case against a cocaine ring based in a barbershop and clothing store called New York’s Finest on North Wyoming Street.

For the raid on New York’s Finest on May 18, 2006, most Hazleton police officers participated, not just the four-man drug squad that Zola directs. Agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration Customs Enforcement, state police and Luzerne County sheriff’s deputies assisted.

With the extra help, police were able to raid the barbershop and five other properties in Hazleton, West Hazleton and Berwick at the same time.

Four of the seven suspects were illegal immigrants, two of whom lived in Hazleton and one of whom remains at large, Zola said.

Almost a year before the raid, police began watching the barbershop and the other properties at which members of the organization sold crack and powdered cocaine.

“I sat there eight, 10, 12 hours,” said Zola, who did much of the surveillance. The duration of stakeouts depended on when drug shipments were due, for example, and Zola expected an uptick in activity.

He said he saw people knock on windows, go behind the building, duck inside cars, or just stand in plain view when buying and selling drugs.

To build the case, undercover agents bought drugs or instructed confidential informants to buy them. Whenever informants made the purchases with city money, six police officers typically had to watch the informant until the sale was complete, Zola said.

“Does that often result in overtime?” one of the city’s attorneys, Andrew Adair, asked.

“Yes,” Zola said.

Investigating the barbershop left Zola’s unit little time to follow other tips that they received.

“Obviously, we’re not a big department. When tied to a case that takes that long, there were so many other complaints we couldn’t get to. It’s all we were doing,” Zola said.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas Fiddler, asked if drugs had been a problem in Hazleton since Zola became a police officer 10 years ago.

Yes, Zola said, but the problem intensified the past five years.

During that time, hasn’t the population risen and wouldn’t crime be expected to rise too? Fiddler asked.

“It depends on what type of people are moving into your community,” Zola said.

Fiddler, with whom Zola agreed that legal and illegal residents of the country have drug problems, pointed to 24 arrests for drug possession among statistics that police provided during the trial.

Were any of those among the 30 arrests that Zola’s unit made?

Zola said patrolmen might have made the arrests for possession.

His unit concentrates on drug dealers.

One of the alleged drug dealers arrested in the raid last May 18 owned the barbershop and is an illegal immigrant.

Fiddler asked if she had a license for her business.

Zola said he thought she did.

Last week, Mayor Louis Barletta testified he didn’t think an illegal immigrant would risk the exposure of going to City Hall and presenting identification to get a business permit.

The immigration ordinance suspends licenses of businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Police suspended the activities of 15 gang members through arrests last year, and Orozco said more than 50 others are under surveillance.

An expert witness, Jared Lewis, who founded Know Gangs in Jefferson, Wis., testified that police typically cannot identify all the gang members within their boundaries.

Lewis said the Latin Kings recruit illegal immigrants, and illegal immigrants make up much of MS-13.

Fiddler objected to his testimony, and said all that Lewis knew about Hazleton came from a telephone call with Orozco last December and a drive around the city with Orozco on Tuesday evening.

Fiddler asked Orozco, supervisor of the city’s new Street Crime Unit that concentrates on gangs, how many members it takes to make a gang.

“Two or three,” Orozco said.

Asked if he realized not all graffiti is gang-related, and that gangs exist throughout the nation, and in some cases, internationally, Orozco agreed.

Questioned by the city’s attorney, Carla Maresca, Orozco said no one had complained to him about the immigration ordinance or racial profiling by police, nor had anyone asked him to reduce the police presence on Wyoming Street.

Witnesses for the plaintiffs raised those complaints against police in testimony last week.