ERMA — “We have a drug issue in Cape May County,” Eugene Taylor, chief of detectives of the county Prosecutor’s Office, told an audience at a Lower Township police community meeting Feb., 7. He said the county did not have a gang problem but had a “gang presence.”
“We have Bloods, occasionally we get a Crips down here,” said Taylor.
He said a gang, largely Hispanic, called G25s, has been developing from the county jail. Taylor said unlike major urban cities, gangs here were not battling on street corners to control the drug market or participating in drive-by shootings every night. He said he had not seen any member of the Latin Kings in Lower Township, but they have been seen in Wildwood. Netas are rarely seen in the area, said Taylor.
He said there is a drug problem in Lower Township. He said the prosecutor’s office narcotics unit works hand-in-hand with Lower Township police detectives.
“When you take powdered cocaine, and you cook it up as rock, you can make crazy money,” he said. “This isn’t about having a good time, this is about money.”
He showed a slide presentation depicting cocaine packaged in small $10 bags.
Taylor said new trends in drug distribution include making it multi-colored and flavored, with the idea of marketing towards children. Coloring also makes cocaine easier to hide.
An example of profit made converting powered cocaine to Crack: drug dealer purchases 4.4 ounces at $26 per gram for a total of $3,125 or $710 per ounce. Cooking it to Crack, 1 gram of powder converts to 0.98th of a gram of Crack, 125 grams= cooked: 2 grams lost in process plus 10 for waste= 113 grams which has a street value of $11,300.
The bottom line: $11,300-$3,124 for purchase and $30 for cook matter = profit of $8,146.
Taylor said if you see something in your kid’s room that looks like a small glass tube with burn marks on one end, “someone is smoking rock.”
“It amazes me how many people are overdosing on heroin,” he said.
Taylor said he saw an 18-year old sitting dead on the toilet of an overdose, with a needle hanging in his arm, seven months after he graduated from Ocean City High School.
PCP is not as prevalent as it was in the past, he said.
“If you see a person running around naked, don’t mess with them, because that’s one of the things that come out of PCP,” said Taylor. “It makes people extremely agitated, hot and gives them almost super human strength.”
He said he saw a person high on PCP with a 13-inch knife stuck through their hand running around trying to stab people with the blade of the knife. Taylor said PCP has a strong ether smell to it. Cigarettes can be dipped in PCP, and they will appear brown in color.
Taylor said kids are making big money from marijuana. He said a 19-year old boy was arrested recently with $19,000 found in his room.
Illegal use of prescription drugs are out of control, said Taylor. He named drugs such as Percocet and Xanax.
Users will scrape the time-release coating off Oxycontin tablets and smoke it or snort the drug, said Taylor.
He used a term called “Pharming,” where youth steal parents’ and grandparents’ medications. Parties are organized to down fistfuls of various prescription drugs. Leftover medication should be disposed of at the police station.
A new genre of drugs is fake marijuana such as K-2, which was formerly legal. A year or two ago, a product marketed as bath salts was being snorted, said Taylor. He said kids are hiding money and dope in fake containers that look like books or CD cases.
Taylor urged anyone with suspicions of drug activity in their neighborhood to call police. It is not necessary to give your name to a dispatcher, he said. Taylor said just because police know there is a drug dealer in a house, they cannot just break down the door and enter the residence. He said he must be able to prove it to a judge on a piece of paper called a search warrant.
“If I know a drug dealer’s in that house, I’m going to do everything I can to get in that house and take his drugs and put him in my favorite place,” said Taylor. “I became a police officer because I wanted to help people; I wanted to help them into jail if they were doing something wrong, and that’s still what I want to do, but I’m never going to violate the Constitution.”
He said a report from a resident of drug activity at a home “may be enough to get me in the door.” An anonymous phone call is another “piece of the puzzle,” that may put it over the edge, providing enough probable cause to enter the dwelling, said Taylor.
Lower Township Police Chief Brian Marker asked residents to call or email police. The department’s website is www.lowertownshippolice.com. In addition, Lower Township police can be “liked” on Facebook and followed on Twitter @LowerTwpPolice. The department has an anonymous tip line at (609) 886-1619 ext. 156.
