FBI drug raids terminated
FBI halts active role in drug busts
Crackhouse initiative yielded few results
Sunday, May 18, 2008
By Laura Maggi
The Times-Picayune
Former Special Agent in Charge Jim Bernazzani earlier this year described the enforcement effort as stemming from the many tips the FBI has received from people around the city, often ticked off by the drug dealing or consumption at a house just down a street. The FBI decided to tackle the problem by teaming up with probation officers, who are empowered to burst in on their charges with just the suspicion of wrongdoing, allowing law enforcement to bypass obtaining search warrants.
But the program, in some respects, has proved disappointing. While this particular partnership helped parole officers keep track of their wayward charges, it didn’t root out the kind of criminal activity that makes a federal case.
None of 80 house visits since January 2007 resulted in federal charges, because agents found no obvious “interstate nexus” to show the drugs had crossed state lines, said Mark Gant, the acting special agent in charge who took over several weeks ago, when Bernazzani was removed from leadership of the FBI office because he announced possible political aspirations in New Orleans. Bernazzani later retired from the FBI rather than accept a forced transfer to Washington, D.C.
Because of the lack of federal cases, Gant decided to pull back from the crackhouse busts, ending the initiative. The FBI now will refocus efforts to target drug activity above the dealer level, particularly targeting the neighborhood gangs across New Orleans, he said.
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