This weekend the Seattle Police Department, FBI, and US Attorney’s office worked together to arrest 18 suspected gang members from the Central District & South Seattle. The agencies executed search warrants and raids that netted four guns, drugs, two vehicles, and a “sizeable amount” of cash.
The goal of the operation was to disrupt the local gangs and try to suppress the recent spike in violence between gang-involved youth, and was the most recent and visible result of an operation that has been underway since at least last fall.
Two of the suspects arrested are now facing federal charges on conspiracy to distribute BZP, which is a drug similar to ecstasy. According to Vincent Lombardi of the US Attorney’s Office, these suspects are alleged to be large-scale distributors of that drug, and suspected of distributing other narcotics such as esctasy, crack cocaine, and marijuana.
The first suspect, Dimitrius Tinsley, is alleged to be a member of the East Union Street Hustlers gang that often hangs out around 21st & Union. According to charging documents, he first caught the FBI’s attention last December when an FBI agent observed him visiting Donnie Cheatam in the hospital following Cheatam’s wounding in a shooting outside Garfield Community Center. FBI agents then used confidential informants, wired for audio recording, to make controlled buys of drugs and guns from Tinsley on multiple occasions. Court documents allege that Tinsley was known to sell drugs at locations that included 32nd & Union, 27th & Spring, and 20th & Marion.
Tinsley’s last known address was in the 900 block of 23rd Ave, and FBI agents were able to tie a cellphone used to coordinate drug purchases back to a woman who once shared that address with him. Using this information, the FBI got court approval for a wire tap on that cell phone and agents used the information from the tap to track Tinsley’s movements and to coordinate large drug buys of up to 5,000 pills at a time.
The second suspect facing federal charges is Avery Scharer, who once answered Tinsley’s cell phone when a controlled buy was being set up. The FBI informant was later allegedly able to purchase 500 pills from Scharer. He is also alleged to be a Central District gang member, possibly in the Valley Hood Pirus.
Two other suspects wanted by authorities couldn’t be located in the initial set of raids, but authorities found out that they were in Las Vegas and arrested them late last night as they arrived at SeaTac. We’re waiting for charges to be filed on them, and will follow up with more details once that occurs.
…it’s unfolding in my own backyard. SWEET
no word on the other 2 suspects names?
We have the other two names, one of which is very recognizable, but will hold off publishing them until charges are filed.
Does anyone have any knowledge/hunch whether the Feds will seize any of the properties mentioned above? I’m personally only familiar with one of the locations mentioned, but it’s been a source of problems for several years now.
To be clear – no properties were mentioned in the charging documents. Those intersections were mentioned as locations for common street dealing.
I wish people would quit snitchin…..
People need to count their blessings
“I wish people would quit snitchin….. “
Bring on the snitching….that’s going to be the gangs’ downfall.
And is it me or has the SPD been out in full force lately? They seem to be apprehending more criminals over the past month or so.
They think they help but all they do is create anger and I mean the feds their to cocky for me they only start more movements
Nuff said.
Thanks for the details, Scott.
Good stuff CDN!!!
What kind of “movement”?
These people are dragging the neighborhood down, not creating something good.
We’re all in the same boat — and snitching on the ones who are trying to f*ck up the boat is the only way to move forward.
These guys aren’t your buddies and friends. They are running a g. d. crime ring.
MORE SNITCHING!!!!
What kind of evidence do you have that ties the two young men to gangs?
We’re reporting only what has been alleged in the charges filed in federal court by the US Attorney’s office. According to those documents, their ties to gangs were formed by investigations into the men’s personal affiliations and the loosely organized crime ring that was behind the narcotics activity they’ve been charged with.
So Federal charges are going to be filed against them?
Federal charges were filed against them yesterday, on conspiracy to distribute BZP
It would be terrific if they could cut down on street dealing with those arrests. I’ve never been hassled by the guys dealing when I end up going past them while I’m out running around my neighborhood, but it definitely makes me feel unsafe.
I know that this was kind of a freak thing, but there was a little girl killed in a drive-by shooting just a few blocks from my old house in Minneapolis. She was sitting at her dining room table, and a wide shot went through a wall and hit her. There was street dealing going on outside a house near hers and a rival gang decided to take a few shots at the guys dealing. This was a long time ago (2002), but I still think of it whenever I see people who are clearly selling in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Their actions really do affect everyone.
(here’s the court filing – I was poking around to see if I could figure out when this happened and found it: http://tinyurl.com/kpym7a – it’s a pdf file)
ES^ FREE MY BRO’S MAIN I’M WIT ASTUNNA ON THAT. QUIT SNITCHIN THAT’S NOT MOB SHIT G!
“IF THE FEDS TRY TO GET ME IMA LOOK AND SAY YOUR HONOR I’M GUILTY GET MONEY MAKE MONEY I’M FILTHY DOG DO YOU FEEL ME DOG DO YOU FEEL ME?
-GUCCI MANE
I’m so tired of hearing gun shots & worrying about dealers, their gangs & the rest of the ugly mess that comes along with it. There have been too many shootings (& deaths) in this neighborhood already. I know it’s only a start but thank god the SPD is trying to get the drugs & violence out of the hood. I hope they make a sweep of 23rd & Cherry too…
Anger should be directed at the people who are shooting kids on the street and screwing up a great neighborhood. I want to be able to live someplace where I don’t have to figure out how many shots were fired, and from which direction so I can walk in my own community at night without fear.
Man I’m gonna miss my lil bro and my niggas imean that’s how tha game goes can’t be doin that phone stuff and I feel how tha other people feel but tha white people are buuying tha drugs to
First off FREE D.T., and all the rest of them. you would have to actually know these guys (not bad people). they might of made a different choice that you or me wouldn’t make but sh*t if i had to take care of my family and i couldn’t get a job and needed money now i would do the same thing. Since the police are cracking down on cases and sh*t tell them to solve the Allen DeLon Joplin case. He was in school, in sports, killed for no damn reason but you only hear the bad things about him. WHY IS THAT? Writing D.T. right now!
amen to that! Allen was my boyfriends best friend!
I AGREE BECUZ ALLEN JOPLIN WAS MY BOYFRIEND AT THE TIME OF HIM PASSING AWAY,AND IM STILL UPSET THAT NOBODY IS DOING ANYTHING…NO SUSPECTS,POLICE IS SITTIN ON THEY ASS WIT CERTAIN SHIT AND CERTAIN PPL…THEY NEEDA GET ON IT AND STAY ON IT..AND FOR ERBODY ELSE QUIT SNITCHIN IT AINT A GOOD LOOK AT ALL.BUT WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND AND KARMA’S A B****….!!!!
RIP FATTY ALI…2-11-07 LOVE YOU..01-03-08
WOW….U CAN MOST DEF TELL WHO LIVES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND WHO DOESNT…U CAN LOOK DOWN UPON HOW WE GOTTA LIVE IF U WANT…BUT IN THE HOOD…NIGGAS ARE LOOKED UP UPON. ALL I KNOW IS DT ISNT AS BAD AS THE MEDIA AND THESE FEDS KEEP TRYIN TO PORTRAY HIM…SINCE ’04 HES BEEN MY NUMBER ONE..AND BEFORE THAT MY BFF…ITS CRAZY..NIGGAS CLOSEST TO HIM TOLD ON HIM…WIRES…TAPS…BUSTS…CANT TRUZT NOBODY…BUT PLEASE BELIEVE HOME WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF…HE HAD MY BACK, I GOT HIS…BELIEVE WHAT U READ IN THE PAPERS…BUT THERES MORE TO A MAN THAN THE “GANG” HE STANDS BEHIND, MORE TO HIM THAN THE STREETS HE STANDS ON…DONT JUDGE HIM UNTIL YOU KNOW HIM…
Some people may be glad to see these “gang members” are in jail… but dnt judge a book by its cover. Everyone in this world is guilty of somethin but that does not make ur identity. I kno these guys n have respect for them as people.. if u were takin care of ur family since u were in highschool, payin rent and bein forced to be a man at an age where u should be goin to dances u wouldn’t say shit. And a young man who is someones father, trying to do wat he needs to take care of his son… no one seems to care about that. But here’s a lil tid bit for u who so easily condem. Most shootings and killings now a days have very little to do wit drugs… n even if they did puttin away one person for sellin drugs ain’t shit. Cuz where one is lost another will always appear. Younger n more ignorant and feelin himself. The spd didn’t do a damn thing to stop a crime wave, they probably want them to snitch so thn there will be
there are many people in this world forced to take on adult responsibilities early in life who do not chose to break the law and do not poison the people in their community.
it seems that those ignorant writers above, warning against the perils of “snitching” should really reflect on how the actions they seem to be defending demean not only themselves but the people around them. My family has lived in the CD all our lives and we never espoused the idea: “IN THE HOOD…NIGGAS ARE LOOKED UP UPON.” True respect is earned by respecting others and contributing positively to society.
As for the so-called “hood”, if you’re looking for a true ‘hood experience – try Rio de Janeiro or the slums of Mumbai, then come back and complain about how bad Seattle is.
It’s too bad BZP is illegal here (just since 2004, despite its availability for 50+ years). The DEA website page on BZP at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/bzp_tmp/bzp_ has only anecdotal evidence of only ONE person who died because of it after mixing it with other drugs. The danger of BZP is only because of the law against it and the status that is imposed upon it by that law. Gotta hang out w/ gangbangers to get it, because Walgreen’s can’t sell it next to the No-Doz.
And … how can you wiretap a cell phone? Shouldn’t there be a better term for wireless-taps?