Standing behind a table bristling with guns and drugs at Baltimore Police Headquarters, officials on Monday touted the takedown of four criminal organizations comprised of at least 39 people as evidence of improving law enforcement coordination.
The gangs operated in Southwest Baltimore and primarily dealt in drug trafficking, but were also associated with violence, officials said.
“Families have been devastated by this level of organized crime,” said U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Democrat who represents Baltimore. “The organizations that are being taken down today, if left unchecked, would’ve engaged in more murder, more drugs, more disarray in this city.”
Dubbed “Operation Tornado Alley,” the nearly year-long investigation resulted in the seizure of 65 guns, approximately 10 kilograms of drugs — heroin, fentanyl and cocaine — and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from members of the group, officials said. Many of the proceeds resulted from predawn raids at 16 residences last week.
The guns seized included untraceable, build-them-at-home ghost guns and firearms featuring devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into machine guns, said Toni M. Crosby, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Baltimore Field Division. She called the proliferation of the conversion devices, known as “Glock switches,” as “a massive threat to public safety.”
Crosby added that ATF agents determined the guns recovered in the case were linked to 47 shootings, saying that law enforcement would continue to look into connections between those implicated in the gang cases and the shootings.
“This investigation is ongoing,” said Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, whose office is prosecuting 38 indictments stemming from the takedowns.
Bates, a Democrat, said his prosecutors wrote approximately 150 warrants and affidavits, for such things as wiretaps, allowing detectives with the Baltimore Police Department to surveil suspects “24 hours a day, seven days a week.” At times, Bates said, investigators learned of imminent acts of violence and interceded before anyone got hurt.
“We identified targets who planned to impact violence on a mass level, but as a result of proactive investigation, numerous violent incidents were prevented,” Bates said, saying officers stopped an armed robbery, broke up a turf war and intervened before one of the alleged gang members was shot dead in a contract killing.
“Drug trafficking,” Bates added, “goes hand-in-hand with our homicides and nonfatal shootings.”
According to authorities, one gang operated in the 2000 block of West Pratt Street in Carrollton Ridge. Another group was based in the 1700 block of Lemmon Street in Union Square. A third crew had set up shop in the 2800 block of Edmondson Avenue in Mosher. The last organization operated in the 500 block of Millington Avenue in Milhill.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the investigation began as a probe by his department’s Group Violence Unit into one organization, but “grew bigger and bigger” as detectives uncovered more information via wiretaps.
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Those implicated in the gang cases range in age from 16 to 61, Worley said. The alleged members have been arrested a combined 220 times. He said 12 were repeat offenders.
Authorities have yet to arrest 15 people charged in the cases, Worley said.
Bates said charges ranged from drug possession and distribution to carjacking and conspiracy to commit murder.
The state’s attorney credited the office of Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for assisting his prosecutors in obtaining a wiretap for the drug organizations. Barron’s office secured federal indictments against two people following the gang sting.
Barron said the gang cases exemplified a new approach from his office in which his prosecutors are “getting our nails dirty.”
“Operation Tornado Alley is just the latest example of the impactful work the city state’s attorney’s office and Baltimore Police Department can accomplish when the feds take a leadership role and provide the teamwork, the tools and the resources that they need,” Barron said. “This investigation never gets off the ground with a wire without State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. He contacted me for help and we went to work.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott described the takedowns as reaffirming his administration’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which seeks to arrest offenders and provide people likely to be trigger pullers or shooting victims resources so they can change course.
“This is what GVRS’s accountability component looks like,” said Scott, a Democrat, describing teamwork and early prosecutor involvement in police investigations as key. “We will not tolerate violence or behaviors that lend themselves to future violence like drug trafficking and carrying illegal guns.”
Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, said increased collaboration between federal and local authorities has been critical to bringing down homicides and nonfatal shootings in Baltimore. Both killings and shootings have seen year-over-year declines.
“Together, we are writing a new chapter in our story of public safety,” Moore said.
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