DDN – Cocaine, fentanyl, and marijuana were among the substances seized by Detroit police during a felony arrest to start the new year, and the investigation is far from complete.
“Chief Todd Bettison’s message is clear: we’re going to get as many guns and narcotics off the streets as possible, along with the bad guys who own them,” Detroit Police Department Cmdr. Anthony O’Rourke stated.
Late last week, O’Rourke’s Organized Crime Unit stamped that message by serving a search warrant on Vinewood near W. For Street in Southwest Detroit. They apprehended a man with a criminal record, more than a kilogram of cocaine, fentanyl, a substantial amount of marijuana, and two weapons.
“Surprisingly, this individual said if he knew it was the police, he was going to shoot it out with us,” O’Rourke recalled.
The person in question had been on the investigators’ radar for quite some time. He’s facing many felony gun and narcotics allegations. Police said he had enough fentanyl to kill up to 500,000 people.
“When I think about the number of drugs alone broken down, put into the hands of young people who are thirsty for employment that are going to end up getting cases behind that, the people that are going to get affected by it by drug use and possibly the deaths of the fentanyl, it’s good to not see it not hurt those families,” according to Maurice “Pastor Mo” Hardwick, the man who died.
Hardwick is a community activist who leads the Live in Peace Movement. He works to help vulnerable young guys break free from a criminal lifestyle.
“The CVI program, Live in Peace Movement, Bars over Bars, we are here to be a change agent to affect people just like the one who was selling it and offer them a better way because now, his life is gone, he’s up the creek with no paddle,” she said.
According to DPD, the whole amount of pharmaceuticals broken down and optimized for profit had a street worth of over $2.4 million.
“What we’re saying is if we take the street value, maximize every last drop of this narcotic, stepped on it, processed it down to the lowest amount to where it would still be a viable product, this would be the dollar amount we could squeeze out of this,” O” Rourke said.
The Detroit Police Department reports that the overall street value of all narcotics confiscated in 2024 is $105.5 million.
Reference: $2.4 million worth of drugs seized during felony arrest in Southwest Detroit
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