BALTIMORE — The sign says ‘Grocery, Candy, Soda and Cigarettes,’ but detectives say suspects were using the American Market on Washington Boulevard to sell drugs and the store’s owner and manager claim they had no idea it was going on.
“Did you guys know there were bad people coming in?”
“No. No. No. No bad people come here, buddy,” said Manager Balinder Sing, “Only good people come here, and no drugs, no weed… this I don’t sell.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced a total of 15 indictments have been handed down connected to a pair of drug trafficking organizations, including one in Northwest Baltimore calling itself “LND”, because it operated in the Longwood-North-Dukeland area along West North Avenue.
“As a result of this investigation, nearly two kilograms of fentanyl were seized—-enough to kill almost 870,000 people,” said Brown, “Think about it. That number is one and a half times the population of Baltimore City.”
At the home of the organization’s alleged gun supplier, agents also seized 10 firearms, including a pair of illegal assault rifles, a pair of stolen firearms and a ghost gun.
The alleged drug dealers operating out of American Market on the city’s south side also were allegedly dealing drugs on a daily basis.
“During the investigation, undercover detectives [recovered] more than 12 undercover purchases of fentanyl from the group,” said AG Criminal Division Chief Katie Dorian, “The investigation resulted in the seizure of an additional four firearms including a TEC-9 and two privately-made firearms or ghost guns, one of which was laser equipped, as well as over 2,000 pills of fentanyl.”
As for the American Market convenience store, we asked if in any way, it could be found complicit with the alleged illegal drug sales going on inside its walls.
On its face, it appears that is yet to be determined.
“We’ll just submit on that,” said AG Organized Crime Unit Chief Paul Halliday, “At this time, there are no charges against anybody associated with or that owns the convenience store.”
