Police Keeping an Eye on Illegal Activity in Community

St, Thomas, USVI March 3, 2009:  Police are taking a close look at illegal activities going on in the Estate Adventure Hill area of St. Croix. Responding to complaints from the community, Police Chief Oakland Benta made a personal inspection of the area Monday March 2.
 
“This is definitely an open drug market. This is cause for alarm” Chief Benta said as he picked up more than 70 small empty plastic bags littering the grass in the area of the children’s playground. The plastic bags are used to package marijuana and crack-cocaine for sale. Other paraphernalia found in the area were discarded lighters and wrapping paper packs.
 
Chief Benta said residents of Adventure and other communities contacted him and requested that he intervene before something serious happens. “Once the community is neglected the drug dealers take advantage of that. Drugs, crime and eventually someone gets seriously hurt or killed. That’s the pattern.”
 
Employees from the Department of Housing Parks and Recreation and Public Works were called to remove abandoned cars and cut overgrown bush.
 
Chief Benta has lead similar operations in Estate Profit, the Frederiksted Fish Market, and Estate Grove Place , making a positive difference in those areas.
 
“We will never rest, not the police or the community,” Benta said.