Portsmouth gang investigation leads to 26 arrests

PORTSMOUTH

They called this planned arrest a "high-risk take down." More than 20 police officers crowded into a conference room for a tense briefing. It was at the heart of an investigation of illegal gang and drug activity, court documents show.

It was September, and the department was four months into its investigation, working with Suffolk police and the FBI. Their efforts already had netted 18 arrests of adults and juveniles, mostly from Portsmouth, on gang, robbery and other charges, said Capt. Garrett Shelton, commander of the Strategic Investigations Division.

They called this day's target a big one: James Alexander Mack, the 24-year-old who police said headed the Bounty Hunter Bloods in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk.

In court papers, police said he had admitted to them that he was a "Big Homie," or leader within the gang.

Police said they had seen or heard about Mack engaging in gang activities, including supervising a gang initiation in which a new member was beaten by three others for 31 seconds behind a Cradock home.

Police said they already had prepared several drug-dealing charges against Mack. They also hoped for additional charges against others before the investigation wound down.

Those charges came Wednesday.

A city grand jury indicted four more Portsmouth adults on gang, firearm, malicious wounding and other charges, some dating to alleged activities in 2003. Three additional juveniles also were charged, bringing to 26 the total number of those snared to date.

A related federal investigation continues, Shelton said.

The investigation has been the largest of its kind in the city and unique in that it delved into historic gang activities, he said. He called it a "first phase" of expected charges.

"I'm not going to tell you it will make a significant dent in gang activity," Shelton said. "What I can say is it makes a statement that we're coming."

Commonwealth's Attorney Earle C. Mobley applauded the initiative.

"We've been working to try to curb this and get in front of it," he said Wednesday. "Hopefully, it sends a message that it might not be worth being in a criminal street gang - isn't that what we're trying to do?"

On that September day, the room quieted as investigators described the layout of Mack's Churchland apartment building, the location of the entry, the number of windows. In the conference room, a poster depicted Al Pacino as a drug lord in the 1983 movie "Scarface."

They hoped to arrest Mack inside the apartment building, Shelton said. No chance of a high-speed chase. Less chance of a bystander getting struck by an errant bullet if things went badly. In court papers, a witness had said Mack was armed.

The bait this time was two military-style rifles, discreetly disabled, in exchange for cocaine in a controlled buy.

They reviewed tactics: How to approach unseen. Where to position the K-9 team. Who would bash in the door and who would toss in a stun grenade.

They referred to Mack as "the target."

Shelton preached patience. If the target balked, police would wait for another chance. "It either happens or it doesn't happen," he told the team.

After the meeting, word came almost immediately that officers thought their target was spooked - he might have spotted a detective positioned in a tree, watching his home.

So plans abruptly changed. Officers staged a fake arrest of a volunteer - a civilian friend of an officer - at the same location, intending to convince the target that he wasn't being targeted.

In a parking lot behind a building near the apartment, Detective Kenneth Gavin of the city's anti-gang task force sketched a map for the volunteer "suspect" on a dusty SUV window. An intentionally noisy "arrest" ensued, and the real arrest plan was scrubbed.

"It's a chess game back and forth, who can one-up the other," said Shelton, a 23-year police veteran. "Sometimes we do; sometimes the other."

Four days later, after another false start, the call went out: The bust was on for a third time.

Officers swarmed to their County Street office, pulled protective vests from trunks, checked weapons with loud clicks, and piled into SUVs and a van.

The deal had changed, police said: Now it was cocaine for two handguns that police had disabled.

Shelton, monitoring a radio and his cell phone, also would act as a "ram," or chase car, if need be, blocking one end of the apartment-complex parking lot.

But complications soon piled up.

A uniformed officer was taking an accident report in the apartment complex.

Bigger deal: Mack wasn't home yet; he was picking up a rental car from a body shop in Chesapeake. A new plan evolved, to meet and arrest him by a convenience store just over the line in Chesapeake.

They passed the store. A plainclothes officer who had turned his police T-shirt inside out pretended to pump gas out front. But Mack still wasn't there. There was discussion about calling it off, again.

Finally, someone spotted him.

"OK, boys and girls, here we go," Shelton said.

He soon got the word.

"It's good!" Shelton yelled, gunning his unmarked car. "It's good! It's good! It's good!"

Within moments, Mack and a companion were on the ground, hands cuffed behind them, surrounded by helmeted officers with rifles pointed, a half-dozen police vehicles blocking them in.

Mack, who had been under intense police surveillance, would face seven charges of selling cocaine plus firearm and gang charges, including one stemming from this day's operation. Those charges are headed to a grand jury next week.

Passersby peered at the scene. Police smiled and relaxed. It had worked. But they weren't done.

Much of the arrest team piled back into their vehicles and hurried the two miles back to Mack's apartment. Officers in full tactical gear marched, single file, to the rear entrance, while a

K-9 team stood by and another officer trained his handgun on a rear second-floor window. Children laughed and played out front.

Then came shouts, a percussive bang, and a quick "all clear." No one was home. Other officers would search the apartment later, Shelton said.

A half-hour later, squad members began heading home. One dropped off Mack's car at the rental agency.

Matthew Bowers, (757)222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com