Illegal Drug Indictments in New Orleans

Keeping American Neighborhoods Safe
Illegal Drug Indictments in New Orleans

08/12/03

On August 8, 17 gang members were charged with an extensive cocaine conspiracy in the Florida Housing Development in the greater New Orleans area. The year-long investigation was conducted by the New Orleans PD's Fifth District Narcotics Investigations Unit and the FBI New Orleans Gang Task Force as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Neighborhood. FBI Special Agent in Charge Louis Reigel, New Orleans PD Superintendent Edwin Compass, and U.S. Attorney Jim Letten announced the indictments.

This indictment comes on the heels of late July indictments in Baton Rouge from Operation Escalade and Operation Tracer—investigations conducted by the area's Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force, a force made up of eight federal agencies, the Baton Rouge Police Department, the Louisiana State Police, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said about the case that it was "another significant attack upon the dangerous and destructive drug trade and its cycle of violence in the New Orleans area," promising to "relentlessly keep up and even increase our pressure upon drug distributors and dangerous individuals in the quest to protect our citizens."