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Big-city gangs are here, cops say



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DRUG WAR

There’s no doubt that Bloods and Crips have established their gangs throughout Luzerne County, police chiefs say.

Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Gerry Dessoye and Edwardsville Chief Michael Slusark say officers have encountered members of the Bloods and Crips during investigations.

Both say the gang members are here for one reason: drug dealing.

How to detect gang activity in Luzerne County neighborhoods will be discussed tonight during a program presented by District Attorney David Lupas.

The program, scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the county’s emergency management center on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre, will help law enforcement, crime watch groups and citizens identify gang activity.

Gang members in Luzerne County are primarily residents of larger metropolitan areas, such as Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., who come to the area to make money selling drugs, the chiefs said.

But the chiefs say the acts of the local gang members have not escalated to the violent levels found in those larger cities.

“You might have one, or two, or three, and then they’ll have a bunch of associates,” said Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Gerry Dessoye. “You don’t have them where there’s 40 or 50 Bloods members and this is their block.”

In conducting the drug trade, the members become associates with local residents, some of whom become members of the gangs, Slusark said.

The overall purpose is to “infiltrate the area” to sell drugs, Slusark said.

Because of that, most police officers do not identify a drug suspect as a gang member in investigating a case, Dessoye and Slusark said. They approach the suspects as drug dealers, and, at times, learn the suspects are gang members through the investigation.

“We don’t classify them as gangs yet,” Dessoye said. “We only classify them as dope dealers. What gang they’re affiliated with for our purpose is just loose intelligence.”

Police reports have indicated gang members have been involved in handful of local crimes, and have been crime victims.

Double-homicide suspect Hugo Selenski has been charged in the shooting deaths of Bloods members Adeiye Keilar, a legal alien from Guyana using a Kingston address; and Frank James of New York City. They were among the five bodies found last year at his Kingston Township home.

Police have described Keilar and James as drug dealers.

And, according to federal court papers filed earlier this year, acquaintances of Selenski face charges of trading weapons to Bloods in Wilkes-Barre for cocaine and cash.

Gang members, at times, can be identified by the color of their clothing, the chiefs said.

But that’s not a failsafe step, Dessoye said.

If two drug dealers are wearing red bandanas, one of them could be a member of the “Bloods,” while the other might be making a fashion statement, said Dessoye, who claims to be informed but not an expert on gangs.

A seasoned gang investigator, he said, would be able to pick up on some specific item of clothing on one of two dealers that would identify which one is a gang member.

But there are also many false claims made by “wannabe” gangsters, the chiefs said.

“There are a lot of people we arrest that claim to be a member of a gang. They’re not exactly telling the truth. They might want to enhance their status,” said Slusark, who handled his first gang-related arrest five years ago when a male unaffiliated with a gang was assaulted by a member of the “Bloods” because of the clothing the man was wearing.

Dessoye said the enhanced status of being a gang members gives a drug dealer “a lot of notoriety,” but doesn’t make that person any more dangerous.

“He’s no more dangerous than another drug dealer with a gun,” Dessoye said.

So far, most turf wars in the area have been for economic reasons, not territorial reasons. For instance, a battle could ensue when one drug dealer encroaches another dealer’s market, or lowers the drug prices, the chiefs said.

Dessoye was cautious in his statements, saying major gang crimes are not “yet” occurring in the area. And, he believes the city can control the gang members before activity escalates.

“I have a tremendous amount of drug enforcement pressure now,” said Dessoye, noting investigators from various state and federal agencies assist his officers in drug cases.

“It’s the most optimistic I’ve been in years.”

David Weiss, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 831-7397.

USEFUL TO YOU

A program on identifying gang activity will be held at 7 tonight at the Luzerne County Emergency Management Center, Water Street, Wilkes-Barre. The program is free and open to the public.