Officials say crackdown in Camden paying off

Local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies have concluded a six-month operation aimed at dismantling some of Camden's most dangerous drug organizations, Attorney General Anne Milgram said yesterday, and crime in the city is starting to decline.

Raids, undercover operations and other tactics aimed at interrupting the city's blossoming drug wars have resulted in 306 arrests since May, Milgram said at a news conference in Camden. Officers assigned to four task forces in the crime-ridden city have seized 40 guns, $183,302 worth of drugs, and $88,564 in cash.

"We believe that we are beginning to make a difference," Milgram said. "The people in Camden deserve better than they have had."

The six-month initiative was the largest such operation ever done in the state, Milgram said. It was conducted as part of Gov. Corzine's Strategy for Safe Streets and Neighborhoods, which is designed to move resources toward combating street gangs and violence.

As the long-simmering drug wars began to escalate in late 2007, the city, with a population of about 75,000, experienced an upswing in homicides. There were 42 killings that year, most coming in the second half.

In the first half of 2008, homicides climbed so rapidly that the city appeared to be on pace for a record year. Between January and May, the city had 25 murders, more than twice the number in that same period in 2007.

But between June and last month, which includes the summer, when homicides tend to rise, Camden had 21 murders - two fewer than during the same period in 2007. Nonfatal shootings have dropped significantly, to 55 between June and October, from 79 in the second half of 2007.

"This is only the beginning," said Milgram, who said the task forces would continue to attack Camden's crime. "We are in this for the long haul."

This week, a nationwide study done annually by the publisher CQ Press moved Camden up from the nation's fifth-most dangerous city into second place. The rankings are based on rates of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and property theft for cities with at least 75,000 people, and the rate was calculated using data from 2007. In 2004 and 2005, Camden took the top spot.

The city has had 47 homicides this year, as of yesterday.

Authorities also released information yesterday about Marilyn Barreto, a Camden police dispatcher who was arrested last month on a charge of conspiring to commit murder.

Barreto, 34, was arrested after police found that she appeared to be helping a Camden man plan a revenge killing, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, which had previously declined to confirm Barreto's involvement.

Barreto, who had been working for the department since 2004, had a past relationship with Camden resident Anthony Flores, owner of an auto-body shop in Camden, which authorities believe also serves as a drug front.

Barreto and Flores, 33, have a child together, authorities said, and their relationship may have led Barreto to help him.

In July, Flores' twin brother, Elvin, was gunned down on a Camden street corner. Elvin Flores had served time in prison on drug charges. In September, police officers charged Camden resident Abdul Malik, 19, with the killing.

According to the prosecutor's office, Barreto used police records to assist Anthony Flores in finding his brother's killer.

Barreto was arrested Oct. 9, the same day police raided the Northgate I apartment building, a high rise near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge that has long been known as a scene of drug activity. State police troopers landed a helicopter on the roof of the building, according to Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson, and descended with ropes down the side of the building to get inside.

Officers also raided Flores' Camden automotive body shop. Flores was arrested on charges of leading a narcotic trafficking network, weapons possession and distribution of a controlled drug. He is being held at the Camden County Jail on $1.1 million bail.

Several of Flores' drug network associates were also arrested during the raid on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said.

Barreto, who has been released on bail, is currently suspended, according to the Camden police.