The investigation focused on the Brooklyn neighborhood, a small, problematic area in South Baltimore. City police say there’s a concentration of violence around 5th Street and Patapsco Avenue including robberies, carjackings, shootings and murders.
"A comprehensive investigation was started in the area to disrupt this particular pattern of violence,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis. “Brooklyn was driving the violence in Baltimore earlier this year."
Now, 14 people have been criminally indicted, facing drug charges for pushing cocaine and heroin. Each one, police call a violent, repeat offender.
"Eight of the 14 defendants have been arrested and apprehended,” said Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby.
But six suspects are still on the loose, and officials want your help bringing them to justice.
"We need to know where they are,” Davis said. “We need to know where they are now."
The Brooklyn area has a high concentration of Bloods gang members. Investigators think the gangs and the crime, drugs and bloodshed are all connected.
"Where there's drugs, there's money, and where there's money, there's guns, they're all interwoven,” said Davis. "So these drug distribution and conspiracy charges are in fact symbolic of the violence that these same people engage in, so these drug distribution charges are a way to make that community safer right now."
Police say they've already seen the crime, shootings and murders in Brooklyn slow down. Focusing hard on this neighborhood is a strategy by law enforcement to target the trigger-pullers in the city.
So far this year there have been 151 homicides. That's up nearly 34 percent from this same time last year.
If you have any information about the six wanted criminals, call the City Police Warrant Apprehension Task Force at 410-637-8970.
