Crack Arrests in Bristol

The arrest of six in Bristol brings up a tough question for the police.

According to reports, police started investigating reports of crack and cocaine sales from a house on Greene Street. This was in May. The arrests were made the end of October, five months later.

The question is how long do you allow criminal activity to continue so that you can build the best possible case and get as much of the network as possible? In this case, undercover officers were able to make “numerous drug purchases” from the location. They also followed the distribution route that included cocaine deliveries to some of Bristol’s housing projects.

Eventually, police determined that several family members were storing cocaine and cash in their homes. They executed search warrants at five locations, including a storage garage.

Of course, the decision to arrest or proceed with the investigation isn’t made in a vacuum. The prosecutor’s office would have been involved as well. But there is certainly a human cost as well when sales are allowed to continue for almost half a year. We rely on the professionals to make the judgment and decide the cost/benefit of waiting or jumping right in. Arguably, if they had acted with the first “buy,” then the rest of the network would have escaped and continued to sell poison.

Not an easy call to make.

The other side is building a case that will hold up in court and result in serious prison time. Each sale is another count. Conspiracy and trafficking also come into the mix as the number of people and the amount of drugs goes up.

It’s hard to argue when the operation is successful, and this one certainly was. Ideally, one or more of the defendants will plea bargain some critical information about the next higher link on the chain.