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CBS3 broke a story this morning about a heroin bust in Northeast Philly. Over one million dollars in heroin was seized by Philadelphia Police "near 'G' Street and Hunting Park Avenue."
The drugs purportedly originated in New York and Colombia (CBS3 put themselves in the crosshairs of our very own Proofreading Philly by misspelling the name of the coffee-and-drugs capital of the world).
The cheeky criminals hid the stash, totaling over eight pounds, in the insoles of their shoes. This is a big blow to the city's drug problem and, with all those drugs off the streets, might even have a positive effect on the murder rate.
This is just the latest in a string of heroin busts over the years. This week's arrests involved the most heroin seized at one time since 17 pounds were recovered in a 1991 incident at 30th Street Station.
Add this to the list of reasons to do everything you can reasonably do to avoid any streets named after letters. That is usually not a good sign.
Image credit: Flickr user Kreg.
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Even if 8 pounds is a significant amount of heroin in a city the size of Philadelphia, wouldn't a dent in the supply lead to more conflict not less between different groups involved in the distribution of narcotics? Not to mention a bunch of strung-out addicts desperate to obtain enough money for the increased cost of their next fix due to tighter supply.
I don't think the violence isn't occurring in the upper-echelons of the distribution network. It's occurring in the streets of residential neighborhoods, on the buyer level and not the seller level. These are mostly teenagers dying in the street. And I'm not even knowledgeable about how much of the violence really is linked to the drugs, it's just a connection I made for the sake of conjecture.
You make a good point but, to be honest, I don't think it will be very long anyway before the supply is replenished. Apparently good heroin has been selling cheaply in Philly, especially in the Northeast, for years: http://tinyurl.com/39gkna.
Supply will probably match demand again within the month. It's the nature of the drug beast - there is always more where that came from.