Charlotte, NC Has A Serious Heroin Problem...More Crime

(Heroin use is on the rise in Charlotte, NC)




Charlotte Heroin deaths on rise in '09

Heroin overdoses and deaths in Charlotte have more than tripled since last year, a concern to authorities who want to prevent a repeat of the city's drug battles of the early 1990s.

Local officials are particularly concerned that gangs, most of which are connected to Mexican drug organizations, are aggressively targeting teenagers.

"We're talking at the Arboretum. We're talking at Northlake mall. We're talking in downtown Charlotte," Mayor Pat McCrory said Tuesday, when the new statistics were released. "We're talking in every neighborhood. Both private and public schools. This is a serious issue."

In 2008, there were eight heroin overdoses in Charlotte and three deaths from heroin, according to police statistics. This year, with two months to go, there are already 33 overdoses and 10 deaths. And seizures of heroin have quadrupled from 1,075 grams to 4,989 grams.

McCrory and Sheriff Chipp Bailey said they have discussed more drug testing in the county jail to better understand the extent of drug use.

McCrory said authorities need the public's help to keep the city from a repeat of 1993, when a crack cocaine epidemic help push the city's homicide total to a record 129 people.

Officials say they have yet to see an increase in drug-related violence this year, but they fear that could change as drug violence along the border spills over into the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice's 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment identified Charlotte as one of 230 cities where Mexican traffickers "maintain drug distribution networks" to sell cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines and heroin.

Capt. Mike Adams of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's vice and narcotics unit said he could not estimate how many heroin gangs, or drug cells, operate in Charlotte, but said police have shut down seven cells since June.

"The majority are Mexican," he said. "All the black-tar heroin is from Mexico."

Black-tar heroin, made from poppies in western Mexico, gets its name from its color and texture. Police attribute its rise to its cheaper price and the well-run distribution networks developed by Mexican cartels.

In an investigation dubbed "Operation Dirty Girl 3," police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested four men on July 30 and seized more than a pound of black-tar heroin.

From his bar less than a half mile from Starmount Elementary School, Carlos Roman Villanueva sold black-tar heroin to clients throughout South Charlotte, including in Ballantyne, according to court records.

Police say they caught Roman after he purchased $22,560 worth of heroin from a supplier.

After arresting the supplier with the money, police visited Roman. They asked for the drugs.

"He went behind the bar, entered the kitchen and returned to provide 557 grams of black-tar heroin," James Long, of the CMPD vice and narcotics unit, said in an affidavit.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe said the traffickers are selling to all demographics, but increasingly are promoting the drug to teenagers who are less fearful of harder drugs.

"Young kids, 17-, 18-year-olds ... are a part of their whole marketing strategy," Monroe said.

Addicts say black tar is easy to find in Charlotte. At $12.50 a dose, it's about half the price of other available forms.

Adams said the drug operations are set up better than some legitimate businesses. They have clear divisions of labor, sales goals and contingency plans to keep the operation running if one of the distributors is arrested.

"I, and many others, had considered heroin to be a drug of the past," McCrory said. "It has now returned to the streets, and homes throughout Charlotte: North, South, East and West."



Forbes: 2009 America's Most Dangerous Cities

No. 14 Charlotte, N.C.

(Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C. metropolitan statistical area)

Population: 1,635,133

Violent Crimes per 100,000: 721

(To determine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI's latest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime category is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics--with more than 500,000 residents.)



Foxx: No property Tax Hike for streetcar; Says Previous Tax Hike helped to Decrease Crime

Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx said Thursday he wouldn't raise property taxes to pay for a streetcar, despite his vote to move ahead with the project and suggestions from city staff that a hike may be needed.

"We aren't proposing or considering any increase in property taxes, and now would be a terrible time to think of that," he told the Observer. "I will not raise property taxes for the streetcar."

The streetcar and property tax issues came up when Foxx and Republican John Lassiter spoke to a luncheon of the Charlotte Regional Mortgage Lenders Association at the Myers Park Country Club.

Lassiter has also opposed property tax increases.

The rivals, both at-large city council members, were on opposite sides last month when council Democrats overrode Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million to start design work on the line.

The project, which would run from Johnson C. Smith University through uptown to Eastland Mall, would cost over $450 million. It's unclear where the money would come from.

"I could not promise to build something I didn't know how to pay for," Lassiter told the mortgage group.

Foxx defended his vote. He said the line would bring economic development to neighborhoods that need it. One study showed new development could generate $112million in new property taxes over 20 years.

"The future of our city is dependent on making every part ... a great place to live in," he told the group.

On Monday the city staff outlined ways to pay for the line to the council's Transportation Committee, which Foxx chairs. One option called for creating a special taxing district along the line and enacting a 4-cent tax hike for every $100 of taxable value. Another called for a citywide tax increase of 2 cents.

The city's current tax rate is 45.86cents.

"By supporting the streetcar, I'm not committing myself to a property tax increase," Foxx said later.

During the meeting, he defended his vote for a 2006 city budget that raised property taxes 9 percent - the first increase in at least a decade. Lassiter voted against the budget.

Foxx said the tax hike helped pay for the 70 new officers the police chief requested, more than in the no-new-tax budget supported by Lassiter and McCrory. It also brought in money for new roads and neighborhood improvements.

He suggested that without the tax hike, Charlotte's crime rate might not have gone down. Police say it's down 20percent from a year ago.

"You can't out a price on (a) family's sense of safety, put a value on the life saved because we had the additional police officers," he told the group.

Lassiter has criticized "unnecessary and unmanaged government spending" that he says had nothing to do with police, roads or neighborhoods.

Thursday he alluded to this year's General Assembly actions that raised the state sales tax by a penny and enacted surcharges of 2 percent or 3percent on some taxpayers. He told the mortgage lenders that he'll keep taxes down.

"We're in a high-taxed city in a high-taxed state," he said. "We've got to right the ship."



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, DEA, Forbes, WCNC, Charmeck.org, Google Maps