Eighty-thousand dollars. That’s what the street value of the drugs in Mark Dales’ briefcase was estimated at. They represented types of drugs that can be purchased on Richmond Highway in the Mount Vernon area. Dale brought them to show members of the Mount Vernon Citizens Advisory Committee during their annual meeting this week.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, somebody will sell us cocaine or marijuana within an hour,” Dale said. “There’s not a 7-11 or a parking lot on Richmond Highway that I haven’t made a sale at.”
Fairfax County Police Captain Larry Moser, commander of the Mount Vernon District Station, said that things are much better than they were 10 years ago. He said that when he was in the Street Crimes Unit, they used to go into the Janna Lee area, and there would be 300 people hanging around — there were so many dealers that they would have bidding wars.
There are still plenty of drugs around, but it has been cleaned up. Arrests are being made and dealers are being put away. Moser likes the quote used in a Washington Post article several months ago, where a dealer said, “I only do crimes in D.C. Fairfax County always gets their man.”
Dale said that when he was on Bike Patrol that they thrived on leads from the community and asked CAC members to let them know if there was suspicious activity in their neighborhoods.
DALE SAID THAT COCAINE and marijuana are the most popular drugs in this area. Ecstasy is used more in the District, while methamphetamine is more popular out in the Winchester, Va. area. Dale attributes this to the influx of Mexican immigrants in that area. Interest in OxyContin has faded, and there’s some PCP, but that’s mostly in the District as well. Mushrooms are mostly used at colleges. Dale said that buyers prefer to go to Washington, D.C. to buy drugs, because they’re cheaper and the sellers are not as likely to rip them off.
Dale had numerous stories of people trying to sell the undercover officers all sorts of things.
“They still get charged with the same thing,” Dale said. “I’ve put people in jail for selling drywall.”
Asked whether the sales were gang-related, Dale said that most of the gang sales were in the District, not on Richmond Highway. When asked which group was more likely to sell drugs, he said, “I’ve brought drugs from every ethnicity. There’s not a person [race] I haven’t bought from.”
Dealers also come from all walks of life. “Everybody’s greedy, it doesn’t matter whether you live in a shack or a mansion,” said Dale, who has arrested sellers living in some of the larger homes in Great Falls and McLean. Often their parents are doctors or lawyers. He said that most of the bigger cases are in the western part of the county.
The greed comes from the incredible markup of these drugs. While cocaine may be pure when it comes into the country, by the time it’s sold, it’s filled with additives and is only about 64 percent pure. Marijuana is purchased by the pound and broken down into small bags.
“We’ve seen 18 year olds with 20 pounds of marijuana and $40,000 in cash,” Dale said.
Dale also said that there’s no age limit when it comes to dealers. “We’ve arrested kids as young as 11, and dealers as old as 74.”