A war wagon was used in the O Street Market shooting in March, in which a 15-year-old was fatally shot and nine other people were wounded in Northwest Washington. They saw it was better to look a little plainer if it meant staying in business longer."ĭrug gangs are finding other uses for disposable cars police say they have seen a proliferation of "war wagons" - old, cheap station wagons that can hold numerous gang members and their weapons. There is still some of that, but not nearly as much.
"The big cars, the nice suits, the gold were symbols of success. "When the Colombians made their entrance in the '80s, they were flashy," Johnson said. If he lost one, he had another one ready and waiting."Īlthough police do not keep statistics on the age or condition of seized cars, investigators say the pattern is part of a movement to tone down the glitz that marked the cocaine surge of the 1980s. "On one arrest, we traced a dealer's name and found out he owned nine cars. "They can afford to lose a car or two," Kittrell said. And if the dealer is arrested and his car impounded, he is out much less money. A "beater" car, the thinking goes, attracts less suspicion from police and nosy neighbors. "Now you're just as likely to see them driving a clunker station wagon." "Two years ago, the most popular cars were the Lexus or the Maxima," he said. Many drug peddlers, for instance, have begun favoring cars worth as little as $200, said Lt. "They saw they were getting our attention with the BMWs, so they turned to Fords and Chevys." "As soon as we catch on to a trend, they do something different," said Mark Johnson, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. It is the latest twist in the hide-and-seek war between police and drug dealers, the chameleons of the criminal world. In an effort to camouflage themselves on the street, dealers are driving nondescript cars and wearing sweat suits and jeans to avoid detection by police, area vice investigators say. The prosecutors also said the handing over of property owned by criminals was made possible thanks to last year's amendment to a Covid-19 law, which allowed items seized during a criminal investigation to be transferred to institutions fighting the coronavirus pandemic.ĭestroying or storing property seized from criminals would be a waste of resources that could be put to use protecting the public, the prosecutors added.If there is a credo emerging among drug dealers of the '90s - whose skills once were measured by the quality of their of suits or make of their cars - it is this: The gang managed to smuggle a total of 4.5 tonnes of hashish from Spain to Scandinavian countries, according to the prosecutors. "Among the items handed over (to the police) there is a BMW vehicle and one other passenger car," the prosecutor's office said. The Central Investigation Bureau received the BMW along with another car following an investigation into an organised crime group involved in smuggling and drug trafficking by the National Prosecutor's Office. Police officers in Gdansk can now drive around in a BMW once owned by drug dealers thanks to the provisions of a new Covid law, national prosecutors said.
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