Feds, state agencies arrest dozens in Dover drug, gang operation; guns, cash, drugs seized

A multi-agency drug and gang investigation intended to help curb Dover's violent crime netted more than 50 arrests, tens of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds and thousands more worth of narcotics, federal and state agencies announced Thursday.

The operation, dubbed "Rise-N-Shyne," began in June and concluded in mid-November. The men and women arrested had ties as far south as Atlanta and as far north as Ohio, officials said.

In total, law enforcement recovered 28 guns, more than 15,000 doses of ecstasy, about a kilogram of marijuana and lesser amounts of MDMA, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine. Police also seized more than $22,500 in cash.

"Operations like this one save lives," Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said. "The seizure of thousands of dollars' worth of cocaine, heroin and drug money, and in particular dozens of guns, prevents untold tragedy in our community."

Though "Rise-N-Shyne" was officially launched last summer, Dover police and Delaware State Police began developing intelligence in February after Dover police arrested several people on drug and firearms charges.

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From those arrests, detectives learned that Mob Piru Bloods gang member Marquise Mack — one of the 50-plus charged — was bringing large quantities of ecstasy from Atlanta to Dover and elsewhere in Kent County, law enforcement said.

That led Dover police and Delaware State Police to contact state and federal partners, including the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals; and Delaware Probation and Parole. The agencies formed a task force to target Mack and his associates.

Many of those arrested belonged to one of four Dover-area gangs: G-Shyne Bloods; Mob Piru Bloods; Sex, Money, Murder Bloods; and 48-Gang. All four are local offshoots of the Bloods, a national street gang.

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The operation, conducted over about six months, came at an important time for Delaware's capital, which saw a record number of homicides in 2020. In the city of about 38,000, nine were killed, eight by firearm.

That's a 300% increase over 2019, which recorded two shooting deaths.

Officials have repeatedly said much of the city's violence can be traced to gangs — "their business is drugs, and a tool of their trade is firearms, and to a larger extent violence and intimidation," Dover Police Chief Thomas Johnson Jr. told Delaware Online/The News Journal last year.

"If we can dial this stuff in, we'll see the results down the line," Johnson said. 

Rise-N-Shyne was intended to do just that.

While Johnson said the operation's immediate impact may be difficult to measure, police "do believe (they) have seen an impact."

"We're moving significantly in the right direction — there's less of the things that we were dealing with just one short year ago," Johnson said Thursday. "Do we still have shootings happening? Certainly, we do, but they're not at the same rate.

"Do we have serious injuries occurring? We certainly do, but not at the rate that we had prior to the beginning of this operation."

Johnson added that it's important now to "follow up with other strategies that help mitigate what can sometimes be a cycle of a problem."

That includes working with federal, state and community partners to target kids most at-risk of joining gangs or dealing drugs, involving probation and parole officers to work with ex-offenders to keep them off the streets and addressing the social determinants — poverty, trauma and job instability — that lead to gang participation and drug use.

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen said Thursday the city has been speaking with Gov. John Carney's office to bring one initiative, the Group Violence Intervention program, to Dover. It's proven effective in many cities across the nation.

Wilmington introduced GVI in the summer of 2019, and it's since had successes, said Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Community Corrections Terra Taylor.

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Developed in Boston in the 1990s by renowned criminologist David Kennedy, GVI promises social services to potential offenders if they stop committing violent crimes. Those services can be anything from therapy and housing assistance to a subsidized job, food stamps or Medicaid.

But there’s a caveat: if the violence continues, prosecutors won’t hesitate to charge those responsible for it.

In addition to talks about GVI in Dover, Johnson said, his department is expanding its community policing unit and is working to target vulnerable kids.

Though the coronavirus pandemic has made in-person outreach more difficult, in the next several weeks, the department plans to announce an "anti-gang, anti-drug and anti-violence video contest" for youth. Details are still being worked out, but Johnson said the goal is to have kids create videos with positive messaging, which will then be judged.

The chief also said he's been in contact with Council for a Strong America, a nonprofit that prepares young Americans for success, about its Fight Crime: Invest in Kids program. The program "takes a hard-nosed look at the strategies proven to reduce crime," the website says.

Johnson said while he's still in the very preliminary stages of working with that entity, his department is "definitely thinking short-term, mid-term and long-term."

"I think our whole community policing expansion is going to benefit the entire city," he said.

Send story tips or ideas to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_