Police make black market bust at Fairfax strip mall
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
May 8, 2009
It started in May 2008 with residents at Bailey’s Crossroads’ Skyline condominiums complaining of illegal activity at a nearby shopping center. It ended Wednesday with 37 suspects charged with a variety of crimes: dealing cocaine and marijuana, selling stolen property, and money laundering, police said.
Fairfax County police along with a handful of local law enforcement agencies cracked what they called an “underground criminal economy” at the Build America Shopping Center on the 3800 block of South George Mason Drive after a year of undercover operations.
Those arrested were loosely connected, said Fairfax County police spokesman Officer Eddy Azcarate. There was no ringleader. There was no gang or mafialike activity. The only link for the “loose-knit group of associates” was the shopping center and the handful of hookah bars nearby, Azcarate said.
Many of the 37 charged didn’t know each other, and some were already in jail for other crimes, police said. On Wednesday, 135 police arrested 18 men and one woman in Alexandria, Lorton, Falls Church, Springfield, Hyattsville, Ashburn, Clifton and Annandale. They ranged in age from 18 to 48.
Officials also said officers seized five guns and “street level” quantities of drugs, meaning none of the accused dealers was a top distributor.
After receiving the complaints, police sent in a small number of undercover officers in May 2008 who quickly discovered the vibrant black market, causing them to begin “Operation Build America,” Azcarate said. The detectives built their case as they watched drugs being dealt, stolen credit cards sold and stolen property exchanged.
Along the way, the police had help. The shopping center is run like a condominium association, with each store individually owned and the owner a member of the shopping center board, Azcarate said. That board, along with tipsters from the nearby Skyline condominium towers and houses, helped police put together their case.
As of Thursday afternoon, police said they were still searching for eight suspects, but the situation was developing quickly; some of the suspects were turning themselves in.
fklopott@washingtonexaminer.com
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