Baltimore City drug dealers are having a harder time finding cocaine to sell, because the U.S. Coast Guard this year seized more than $4.7 billion worth of the drug, city police said Tuesday.
“It brings us great joy to hear drug dealers say, ?We can?t find any,?” Baltimore City Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale said of criminals? complaints picked up by wire taps.
“It?s not easy to get a kilo anymore.”
In 2007, the Coast Guard set an agency record when it seized 355,755 pounds of cocaine.
The seizures represent a “milestone in Coast Guard history,” said Coast Guard Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Robert Papp.
In one particularly large seizure, the Coast Guard took 43,000 pounds ? more than 21 tons ? of cocaine from a Panamanian vessel off the coast of Panama, said U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-District 7, who is chairman of the congressional subcommittee on the Coast Guard.
“Every ounce of cocaine seized at sea is an ounce that cannot reach our nation?s ? or our city?s ? streets,” said Cummings, who represents portions of Howard and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City.
Baltimore has an estimated 60,000 drug addicts, about 10 percent of the city?s population, he said.
The lawmaker said Baltimore has come a long way since 1996, when the city had the highest rate of drug-related emergency room visits in the nation. Last year, the city had a 10-year low in deaths from drug overdoses.
“In the past decade, our city has mounted a truly remarkable effort against the crisis that drugs have created in our community,” Cummings said.
Barksdale said his officers have made 6,800 felony drug arrests this year. He said there?s been a shift in policy from the past few years when Baltimore police arrested about 100,000 people annually.
“We?re much smarter now,” he said. “We don?t want to run around and lock up every one on the street. We don?t want to arrest a high number of addicts. We?re arresting the violent drug dealers first.”
