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PHA's Bartram Village, site of a drug raid, is a hard and dangerous place

Federal and local authorities removed what they said were 17 violent, drug-dealing gang members from the Bartram Village housing project.

Federal and local authorities removed what they said were 17 violent, drug-dealing gang members from the Bartram Village housing project.

But that didn't purge the wariness.

On Thursday, tough-looking young men with tattoos walked though the village, a Philadelphia Housing Authority property in Southwest Philadelphia, casting a doubtful eye at strangers.

This week, authorities unsealed an indictment charging that for nearly a decade, a gang known as the Harlem Boys terrorized the housing development, selling drugs and enforcing their rule with shootings, carjackings, and robberies.

On Thursday, one female resident questioned whether the gang existed, adding, "Now, there is drugs around here, but not out in the open."

Another resident said only that he had noticed the commotion: a helicopter circling the area, and police officers in black SWAT uniforms walking around the complex.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen said the gang had held the Bartram Village neighborhood "hostage."

A 73-count indictment named 17 defendants, 10 of whom were arrested. Seven already were jailed on other charges, including Omar Roane, who gained notoriety in August for escaping from a police van, only to be captured a few days later in Harrisburg.

The village consists of brick apartments that contain one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. It's among the last traditional housing projects in Philadelphia, and it's a hard and dangerous place.

Rapper Reed Dollaz, whose real name is Fareed Erickson, grew up in Bartram Village with his grandmother. His official Facebook page talks about the drug sales and hardships in the neighborhood.

"Taking 17 people out of that area who are major players in narcotics and use of guns, I think, will have a dramatic impact in that community," said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. "We think we'll see lasting results."

He credited federal authorities, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, with providing resources that allowed a known trouble spot to be targeted.

Walker said he was counting on long prison sentences that would let people in Bartram Village "live in a community and feel safe, and allow their kids to go out and play without worrying about drug dealers and guns being shot off at all hours of the day."

That worry is real.

"We often feel that we take a baby step forward, and then the situation in the neighborhood forces us to take a giant step back," said Donna Henry, executive director of the Southwest Community Development Corp. "The neighborhood has been declining in the last 15 years, faster than this organization or any organization can stay on top of."

Her group works across Southwest Philadelphia, providing family services, utility and rent assistance, and employment counseling. She recalled how, in 2006, a federal drug sting led to the arrests of 22 people at the nearby Paschall Homes project, which was soon torn down.

"It was the same thing, [criminals] terrorizing people there," Henry said. "They got rid of the worst offender - and then eliminated the site."

At Bartram Village, "I know PHA has made some efforts over the years," Henry said. "They blocked off some of the little side streets, so that when you're chasing a bad guy, it's harder for him to get out of the site."

The village is "somewhat isolated," she noted, bounded by industrial sites and by historic Bartram Gardens.

That placement is incongruous: A dangerous housing project set beside the homestead of John Bartram, the nation's first botanist, famous within colonial Philadelphia's scientific community. His house sits on a 45-acre landscape on the Schuylkill that includes the country's oldest living botanical garden, a wildflower meadow, freshwater wetland, and river trail.

Louise Turan, the garden's executive director, said the staff there has never experienced assaults or threats - but that doesn't mean life beside Bartram Village is easy. The garden does all it can to make visitors from across the world and around the block feel welcome and safe.

For instance, the garden hired a night watchman to monitor the entrance in the hours between the staff's departure and the arrival of park rangers, who secure a gate that blocks cars from entering. That came after vandals broke windows in a 300-year-old building and spray-painted a tree. Garden staffers believe the vandalism was done by restless teens.

The garden shares an entryway with the village, which has caused confusion. "People often mistake us for the projects," Turan said, "and won't come in."

For the most part, she said, neighbors who use the garden do so for their own recreation and interest. The garden has reached out to Bartram Village, she added, by circulating fliers that encourage people to visit.

For nearly a decade, authorities said, the Harlem Boys gang terrorized Bartram Village. To some, the members were known only by street names - Smiz, Boo Allen, Shy, Little O, and ominously, Murder.

"Murder" is Merrell Hobbs, who now faces 10 years to life in prison. Two defendants face mandatory life terms, while the rest face potential sentences of 10 years, 20 years, or life.

Their trade was the sale of crack cocaine, which was dealt among drugs both illegal and prescribed. Their purpose was to make money. Assault, robbery, and guns were the means of "preserving and protecting the power, territory, and profits" of the gang, according to the indictment.

Anyone who entered Bartram Village without the consent of the gang could be in danger. That included rival drug dealers, but also anyone the gang "believed did not 'belong,' " the indictment said.

Women who lived at the development were paid for the use of their homes in cash, drugs, or both. The apartments were places to cook and store crack and weapons, as well as being sales locations.

Since 2001, the Harlem Boys sold $3.5 million worth of drugs, prosecutors said.

Nichole Tillman, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, said the agency would be meeting with residents at Bartram Village to talk about the future. That meeting could take place next week, she added.