Police from Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties announced Thursday that they have arrested more than 50 alleged gang members on 150 felony drug, robbery, weapons and assault charges in the largest-ever crackdown on the Crips in Maryland.
“We have dismantled their organization and sent shockwaves through other gangs in the area,” said Col. Thomas Hutchins, secretary of state police.
The area?s Crips, with ties to California and New York City originally, recruited Westminster criminals as new gang members who sold drugs and scarred downtown with shootings and other violent crimes, Police Chief Jeff Spaulding said.
Gang members sold crack, cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy, said Carroll County Deputy State?s Attorney Clarence Beall.
Two brothers headed two separate but intertwined gangs, said Senior Assistant State?s Attorney Jennifer Darby, whose husband, a Westminster police officer, was jumped by gang members in 2002. Lamar Cason Wilmore, the 28-year-old leader of the Outlaw Gangster Crips, is awaiting trial on drug distribution charges, while police are still searching for Martin Kenneth Williams, 33, leader of the Money Making Gangster Crips, on drug import and distribution charges, Darby said. These gangs operate in all three counties, she said.
More than $45,000 in cash, 33 ounces of crack, 25 ounces of cocaine, 13 pounds of marijuana, 258 ecstasy pills, eight ounces of liquid PCP and nine handguns were
confiscated as a result of the two-year investigation.
And while dozens of key players in the Crips are awaiting trial or behind bars, Beall said, the profitable Carroll County drug market, where dealers can charge twice as much as in Baltimore, is expected to lure others to replace them.
So Carroll County is applying for an additional $200,000 state grant for anti-gang initiatives, he said, which must focus on school, church and other community initiatives that work to dissuade the men who are tempted to join.
The county recently awarded a $25,000 grant to study the extent of gangs in the area.
TIME LINE
» May 2002: Crips members attack Westminster police officer
» April 2004: Arrest of Westminster Crips leader causes near riot
» October 2004: Crips member opens fire on random people
» June 2005: Member charged with stabbing in Taneytown
Source: Maryland State Police, Frederick County Law Enforcement and Westminster Police Department
